The story of Edinburgh castle

Presented to the

LIBRARYo///ie

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

by

JOSEPH BUIST

THE STORY OF
EDINBURGH CASTLE

I

THE STORY OF
EDINBURGH CASTLE

BY LOUIS WEIRTER R.B.A.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
PROFESSOR PATRICK GEDDES

WITH SIXTEEN COLLOTYPES AND AN ETCHED
FRONTISPIECE BY THE AUTHOR ALSO EIGHT
DRAWINGS IN LINE BY MONRO S. ORR AND
END-PAPERS DESIGNED BY OTTO SCHLAPP PH.D.

LONDON

GEORGE G. HARRAP & COMPANY

PORTSMOUTH STREET KINGSWAY W.C.

MCMXIII

TO

MY OLD AND
DEAR FRIEND
JOHN GEDDIE

PRINTED AT

THE BALLANTYNE PRESS

LONDON

ALTHOUGH much has been written about
Edinburgh Castle, the historical interest
attaching to the ancient fortress is so great
that perhaps the appearance of another book on the
part it played in the romantic history of Scotland is
not without justification. This attempt to collect the
strands of history from the web wherein the story of
the Castle is woven was not undertaken with any
intention of writing a 'guide-book.' My desire has
been to entertain those who dwell within the shadows
of the grey fortress and to give to others who may
visit its ancient battlements food for the inspiration
which from my earliest days I have received from
them.

I have pleasure in expressing my indebtedness to,
among present-day authorities, Mr. C. G. Cash,
F.R.S.G.S., and Mr. John Geddie; also to the
monumental work edited by the late Rev. Dr. Taylor.
My thanks are due to my friend Professor Patrick
Geddes, who has kindly furnished the book with an
Introduction, and to Mr. William J. Hay, who read
the proofs with much care.

LOUIS WEIRTER

August 1913

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
I : ONCE UPON A TIME
II: QUEEN MARGARET
III: DARK DAYS
IV : THE BLACK DINNER
V : THE BLACKEST DAY FOR SCOTLAND
VI : THE POWER OF THE DOUGLAS

VII : THE CORONATION OF CHARLES
THE FIRST

VIII CROMWELL AND THE MINISTERS

IX BONNIE PRINCE CHARLIE

X THE STORY OF THE REGALIA

XI MONS MEG AND OTHER RELICS

XII THE CASTLE HILL

XIII FROM THE CASTLE WALLS

PAGE

xi

i
1 1

23
37
59
93

'33

'57
181

203
227

245

Vll

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

^ Facing page

THE CASTLE FROM THE GRASSMARKET : TWILIGHT

frontispiece

QUEEN MARGARET GIVING FOOD TO THE POOR 14

NORMAN ARCH IN ST. MARGARET'S CHAPEL 18

THOMAS THE RHYMER RECITES TO ALEXANDER III 26

WILLIAM FRANK SCALES THE ROCK 30

WILLIAM BULLOCH FIGHTS AT THE CASTLE GATE 34

THE PARLIAMENT HALL 44

THE BLACK DINNER 52

THE CASTLE FROM JOHNSTONE TERRACE AT SUNSET 56

THE ESCAPE OF THE DUKE OF ALBANY 64

THE PALACE, OR ROYAL LODGING 70

MARGARET TUDOR RECEIVES THE PEERS 76

THE CASTLE FROM THE VENNEL 84

THE CHAMBER WHERE JAMES VI WAS BORN 102

THE ARGYLL TOWER AND PORTCULLIS GATE 118

DUNGEONS UNDER THE PARLIAMENT HALL 148

ST. MARGARET'S CHAPEL 154

THE FAMOUS POSTERN 160

WALLACE'S CRADLE AND THE WELL-HOUSE 166

THE HIGHLANDERS MARCH UP THE HIGH STREET 174

THE RUINS OF THE WELL-HOUSE TOWER 186

THE STATE PRISON 196

MONS MEG 210

THE CASTLE BY MOONLIGHT 230

SUNRISE FROM THE CASTLE WALLS 248

b ix

IT must be twenty years and more since Mr. Weirter and I made
acquaintance ; when he joined the cheerful company and helped
the opening festival of one of those groups of students, happily
mingled with artists, who in hostel after hostel of Castlehill and
Lawnmarket and St. Giles were in those days initiating for Edin-
burgh the adoption of that free and informal mode of associated
life from which the historic colleges of mediaeval universities have
been a further but not always a more vital development. And I
speak here first of this little fellowship of University Hall, not only
as having afforded our initial and enduring personal tie, but as
having set its stamp upon us both, since common environment and
associated action ever tend toward unity of interest and harmony of
spirit. For our association of ' town and gown ' —of individual
citizen, and student then, and as yet, but planned to steep and
spread into University and City in no very distant morrow — was
already foreseeing, in this union of artist and student, the
educational future, in which the old schism between knowledge
and beauty, the long separation of learning and art, and of these
from the common life, shall be abated. More than this, it
was also forefeeling an opening civic future, through which our
romantic old town, largely fallen though it has been for genera-
tions into squalor and even ruin, should yet be worthily conserved,
maintained, renewed. From our vantage-points among its highest
outlooks we could already foresee its recovered precedence over the
New Town, which with all its stateliness is, and can be, but the
foremost mansion- suburb of the historic city. To the rightful
denizens of this — the innumerable company of lawyers made
perfect, who well-nigh to a man, as fame has so long made
known, and social survey can but confirm, exceed those of all
other cities in scrupulous conformities, in conscious respectabilities,
and all the other formal virtues, and whose dynamic attitude, that
of criticism, is correspondingly practised and displayed — to these,
I say, our dreams have naturally appeared but vain, as indeed they
do to this day, and even to most of those fathers of either City or

XI

Introduction

University who mistakenly persist in inhabiting that dangerously
chilling neighbourhood. Still, our fraternity has managed to
survive ; and as little by little we have cleansed and gardened,
repaired and built, our dreams have developed, our plans and
town^plans with them, until we are well-nigh ready to leave to
our successors in these first hostels of Old Edinburgh not merely
the project, but a clear and organized, albeit plastic and adaptive,
design for the ' Historic Mile/ nothing short of the phoenix4ike
renewal of the ancient capital as a modern one. With this too
may advance that rejuvenescence of its University, which has
long and at many points been in unmistakable if tardy progress,
as henceforth largely a residential one, yet withal not less
democratic than in its best days, with its modest halls and
courts mingled among the homes and gardens of the people ;
and it may be, yet more vitally and closely knit with their own
renewing purpose and joy of life than even were the friaries of
old, or are the settlements of to-day.

Thus, even within the opening generation Old Edinburgh may
again be no less significant than in its bygone days of patriotic
defence or of religious initiative, of political intensity or of philo^
sophic thought. Indeed, why not more than ever? For what if
that rarest of historic marvels, that of a city's too rare culture*
blossoming and architectural renewal, be after all a simple and
an opening life'Secret — that which lies plain before us in the
growing child, the interaction of bodily and mental life, of health
and happiness as sound and sane — material conditions and higher
activities evolving together ? Even for the academic town,
though Edinburgh, past or future, is far more, our associated
endeavours from the very first have begun to show how it
may readily, even speedily, be made a no insignificant nor less
individual third to those two most magnificent of the material
creations of collegiate life in the past, the 'Backs' in Cambridge,
the ' High ' of Oxford. For, unapproachably splendid in their
way though these two monumental perspectives be, here is a yet
fuller civic, national, and historic seat, in the most nobly romantic
and inspiring setting ; and this for learning and its professions,

XII

Introduction

and up to their highest applications and expressions in literature
or for art ; and with its innumerable study windows, befitting a
city of thought, each commanding some synthetic yet changeful
view and vision of city and country, mountain and sea and sky,
hardly surpassed by that which of old aided the thought of
Athens to its encyclopaedic syntheses, which stirred it to creative
idealisms. Where better can youth recall the long pageant of the
historic past, and thence proceed to grapple with the tangled
tasks of the present, or search into its problems, and finally plan
and strive toward the opening future, than upon this long
sky-line which runs from the Abbey ruins and the Palace towers
up to the yet more varied and historic Castle, and which thus
sums up against the sky the past, the present, and something of
the opening future ; and all this scarce less dramatically and far
more comprehensively than in any other great city-view in the
world ? For in the high outlooks of the classic cities so full a
presentment of recent and present times is lacking, while from
the towering heights of new-world centres we miss the rich
perspective of the past. Here, moreover, the presentment is
complete and emphatic enough to be more than a local record ;
and to be broadly representative, and to a scarcely less striking
degree, of the main institutions and monuments of the long
history of civilization. It is no less than this social and civic
completeness which gives the central panorama of Edinburgh its
impressiveness to every eye. Scott's work was indeed above all
an evidence of this and an earnest of more : and thus, when that
tragic pre-eminence in the diseases of overcrowding amid which
the University has so justly won and ever and again renews her
medical fame has been cleansed away for good, and her most
crowded school thus falls to mere provincial magnitude, she may
bestir herself to the shaping of a new Faculty of Civics, with a
School of Sociology perhaps no less pre-eminent in its turn.
Here then, and indeed more fully stated than either of us has
realized before, are the deep ties which after so many years have
brought our artist-author and his preface-writer together — fitly
at first as players in one of the masques with which we have

Xll

Introduction

been celebrating the semHubilee of our pro-collegiate and civic
endeavour ; and now, fitly again, between these bookish boards,
as lovers of Old Edinburgh, and each therefore in his own way
intimate with its initial, central, culminating feature, the rock'
built Castle.

Edinburgh, though fruitful in young ability and aspiration and rich
in educative resource and influence, has ever been one of the
sternest mothers ; chary of claiming, even accepting, her children's
aid, but sending them forth throughout the world to seek what
fortune may send. Yet few can forget her charm, and many at
one phase or another of life " return with a natural and salmon-like
affection to the place of their rearing." And these feel more
than before the simple pride and pleasure of their youth in her
antique stones, since now their very dust is felt to lie deep with
memories dear. Here then is an essential cause of this book, and
the spirit of its drawings and its tales together. To set forth the
old, heroic Heritage of the past, to recognize mingled with this
the sombre Burden, is an ever-renewing task of the arts : the
harper and saga-man of old, the minstrel and the ballad-singer,
the romancer and historian, and now the etcher and writer of to-
day are in one true and continuous succession. It may seem long
since Sir Walter first adequately revealed Edinburgh and its region
to Scotland and the world ; and since then, after the memorable
generation he kindled again to Cavalier and to Puritan idealisms,
we have had that long reaction into a coalition of the defects of
both, from which we are again seeking escape. Till two genera-
tions ago and less the name of Scot has stood throughout the
world with and for the noblest — witness, at simplest, the pro-
verbial phrases of France — not only Fier co-mme un Ecossais, or
even Hospitaller co-m-me un Ecossais, but also, and this through
history most truly of all, Genereux co-mme un Ecossais : for who
have ever held friendship and honour more high, and life more
lightly ? But to-day, wherever English is spoken, have not the
commonest associations of ' Scotch ' come to be but with drink
and with bawbees ? Nor are these undeserved ; these vile thirsts
and obsessions in which we thus are acclaimed by our imitators to

Introduction

excel are at once the essence and the nemesis of the coalition
aforesaid, that of old mysticisms decayed with ambitions degraded.
And our city would not be that well-nigh perfect expression of
Scottish and of general history and civilization as which we have
claimed it did it not to-day stamp itself upon every eye by its long
lines of public-houses and slums, by the perhaps yet more ominously
towering ' first-class hotels ' which confront them, and above all
by a bank and an advertisement office upon the fullest level of mag-
nificence, in fact the only two nobly situated buildings of our time
upon which wealth has been poured out like water.
But now again the times are changing, and we with them. The
generation which will be remembered in history as most identified
with the material growth of towns, but these debased with dull
prosperity and drugged into squalid sleep, is now lapsing from its
ill-used power, and a new age of Cities is beginning. Is this not
plain to the reader ? Not yet plain in Edinburgh or in London it
may be confessed, though indications are not lacking ; yet here,
where I am writing, it is plain to every citizen, and even mani-
festing itself before every child. For this old city of Ghent is en
fete — a city to many seeming now merely provincial, and of
course a long way outside Brussels, yet none the less the most
historic and monumental of all the regional capitals of the longest
civilized and most civilizing region of Northern Europe, this great
delta of the Netherlands, of which the * Great Powers ' are still
in too many ways but the lagging hinterlands or the outlying
isles.

This main fete of Ghent is a world-exhibition, and that in many
ways of the best ; above all to be remembered beyond its material
wonders, as of radiology, aviation and the rest, for having given
the clearest expression in the world as yet of a conception long and
slowly struggling toward utterance at many points in England
and America alike, and not least in Edinburgh — and now soon to
be familiar throughout the world as a new objective for thought, a
new goal for policy — that of the Revival of Cities. For here in
one palace, worthily metropolitan, are shown forth the civic
services of Paris, after seeing which the purest of political fools will

XV

Introduction

not so readily again sneer " Gas and Sewage/' Then near this
a noble * Square Communal ' is formed by the palaces of the four
greatest cities of the land, Ghent, Antwerp, Brussels, Liege.
The nearest doorway to this square is that of the most varied and
many-sided of Civic and Town-Planning Exhibitions as yet brought
together ; and beside it has just met the ' First International
Congress of Cities/ with representation from a hundred and more
all the way from Aberdeen to Bucharest, at which the burgo*
master and councillor and engineer have sat in unwonted converse
with the historian, the idealist, and the artist. Almost as I write
an hour^long tercentenary pageant has marched and ridden by, to
the unveiling of a great monument to the city's worthies of yet
earlier centuries, the brothers Van Eyck ; and from this the young
King has gone on to open the garden fetes, and to encourage the
new agricultural village.

And so on : the Revivance of Cities is in actual progress ; and
here, if any still doubt, we have a kilometre and more of plan*
covered walls to confirm it ; though of course how long our
Rip Van Winkles may snore, or, if awakened, feel puzzled or
determinedly incredulous, is a quite different matter.

Enough, however, of Ghent for the present ; it is time to come
home to Edinburgh, where with all its beauty the seasons are
late and it is chilly in the morning.

Pending the approaching Revivance of Edinburgh, what better
task than to be thus recording its central monument and heritage
with Mr. Weirter, to be interpreting its broadest aspects with
Dr. Schlapp, to be redesigning its pageant of memories, as Mr.
Orr in his turn is doing ? In such ways artists, writers, and
readers have come together before now ; and, when the time is
but a little more ripe, we too may join hands in the coming Masque
of Arousal.

PATRICK GEDDES
EXPOSITION COMPAREE DES VILLES
(Cities and Tenon-Plaining Exhibition}

GHENT j August 1913

xvi

CHAPTER I : Once Upon a Time

CHAPTER I : Once Upon a Time

FOR the few who have an eye for the beauty of
townscapes, Edinburgh is still the loveliest thing
in Scotland. The grey city of the North,
mantled in her delicate mists, and lifting proudly her
rude spears of rock, flings her fierce head against the
sky, brooding always as men come and go in the busy
streets and the narrow closes beneath. About her
beaten stones cling many shadowy tales of laughter
and of tears, of love and desire and hate -, of mail-clad
chivalry and lurking crime. Tier on tier it rises from
the estuary of the river to its crowning pride — the
gaunt rock on which stands its Castle. " The rude,
rough fortress," of which Burns sang :

gleams afar

Like some bold vefran, grey in arms,
And marked with many a seamy scar ;
The ponderous wall and massy bar,
Grim-rising o^er the rugged rock,
Have oft withstood assailing war,
And oft repeWd tfr invader's shock.

But now its rooms are drab and tenantless. The
colour is gone from them- -the flush of passionate
life, the ring of song and merry-making, the murmur
of soft voices, and the odour of wine and roses, are
no more.
Of its infancy, far removed in the twilight of the

3

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

ages, there is nothing more than conjecture. Before
the Roman invasion the rock reared a vastly greater
bulk amidst a wilderness of forest. The wander-
ing tribesmen of early Caledonia fought hard for the
majestic rampart as a site for their capital- -now
triumphant, now repulsed. Geologists state that the
rock is believed to have been a molten mass which
cooled in the throat of a volcano. Hugh Miller gives
a vivid picture of the time when the waters once swept
down in two channels, to right and left of the rock,

' O i

leaving a long ridge down the eastern side which forms
Castle Hill and the High Street.

o

But more modern geologists show that the rock is
the plug of the old Edinburgh volcano- -the mass of
lava that cooled and solidified within the throat
when there was no longer eruptive force sufficient to
eject it.

This plug has been left standing aloft when the
softer surrounding material was removed by the grind-
ing action of the great ice-sheet that covered Scotland
during the ice-age.

To the west, south, and north of the rock are hollows
scoured out by the moving ice, and to the east is the
long height on which the High Street is built, left as a
ridge because protected by the hard volcanic rock.
Various theories are current concerning the remote
history of this natural fortress at one time almost
inaccessible. According to that genial and invalu-
able chronicler, Thomas Stow, the Castle was

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

supposed to have been built by the designer of
Bamburgh Castle. In his Summarie of Englyshe
Chronicles he says :

"Ebranke, the sonne of Mempricius, was made ruler
of Britayne ; he had, as testifieth Policronica, Ganfride,
and others, twenty-one wyves, of whom he received
twenty sonnes and thirty daughters ; whyche he sente
into Italye, there to be maryed to the blood of the
Trojans. In Albanye (now called Scotlande) he edified
the castell of Alclude which is Dumbritayn (Dum-
barton) j he made the castell of Maydens, now called
Edinbroughj he made also the castell of Banburgh
in the 2,3rd yere of his reign. He buylded Yorke citie,
wherein he made a temple to Diana, and set there an
Arch-flame j and there was buried when he had reigned
49 yeres."

The most ancient name of which we have a record
is Castelh-Mynyd Agned, signifying the fortress on the
hill of Agnes } but it was known to the Ancient Britons
as Castel Mynedh Agnedh, the maidens' or virgins'
castle, since it was used by the Pictish kings and nobles
as a place of safe keeping for their daughters. From the
fifth century to the reign of Malcolm there seem to
have been continuous struggles for the fortress between

oo

the Picts and the Saxons of Northumbria, each being
alternately victorious. But in the seventh century, the
Saxons, under the leadership of Edwin, the most power-
ful of the petty kings of Northumbria, decisively repulsed

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

the Picts. The Castle was then rebuilt, according to
tradition, with stones from a quarry at Craigmillar, and
the name Edwinsburgh affixed itself to the settlement
existing on the ridge. Thus both it and the Castle
became known as Edinburgh, though the Celts moulded
the name into a closer affinity with their language, and
called it Dun Edin — the face of the hill.
This settlement formed a nucleus around which
the town has gradually arisen. Tradition has it that
Edwin succeeded in conquering Scotland as far north
as the Forth, while his territory extended as far south
as the H umber. His successor, Egfrid, was not so
fortunate, for in a great battle with the Picts, under
Brude, he was himself killed, and the remnants of his
army, with terrific slaughter, were driven across the
border, never to return again. This decisive battle,
which was fought in 685, was the finish of the Saxon
monarchy. Thereafter, the defeated Northumbrians
were confined to their country south of the Tweed }
and Dunedin became once more the stronghold and
the capital of the Scots and Britons.
A hamlet of a sort had already begun to show
itself, and the Church of St. Giles, a structure of
primitive type, became a chaplainry of the ancient see
of Lindisfarne. The church was built of wood
because it was popularly believed that in the year
1000 the world would come to an end. Scotch
caution, even in religious matters, showed itself thus
early in this frugality in the use of less easily wrought

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

material for the raising of an edifice whose permanence
was by no means assured.

Caution in erecting expensive buildings as the year
1000 approached was not, however, confined to
Scotland- -the belief was universal throughout Europe,
and it had a considerable effect on architecture.
At this point occurs a hiatus in the history of
Edinburgh and its Castle. For a period of four
hundred years, dating from the regaining of Dunedin
by the British, nothing is known. It is not
until the reign of Malcolm II is reached that the
historian can catch up the threads of its story.
Owing to the destruction of the national records by
Edward I, and again by Cromwell, one has to attempt
to fill the gaps from casual tradition, and by re-
search in other quarters. According to Buchanan,
Grime the usurper, in 996, waged a series of
bloodthirsty sea-fights with the Danes who attempted
to invade the country, and totally destroyed their
galleys. After this effort he seems to have wearied
of blood and toil, and to have changed from a hardy
warrior to a self-indulgent man of peace. His Queen,
it appears, took up her residence at the Castle, and
Grime seems to have been well contented that she
should do so.

He left her to her own devices, and pursued the
pleasures of the chase among the woods of Polmood.
Like many another hunter, he caught a finer game
than he set out to seek. Fate laid a snare for him,

7

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

and brought to his notice here, by a chance meeting,
a beautiful maiden named Bertha of Badlieu. (The
very name lends itself to a ballad of love and adven-
ture and high endeavour.) He forgot his lady in the
castle — " out of sight, out of mind." The charms
of chasing the white bull seemed suddenly to pall ;
not so the life of the joyous greenwood. His men
sought him, and sought in vain ; he had found a
new quarry, and a new zest for the chase.
In course of time a son was born to the hapless
pair ; and to the Queen, isolated in the Castle, came
news of it. Whereat she was — and justly- -moved
to queenly fury, and vowed vengeance on the beautiful
Bertha. Fate guided her hand. In due time Grime
seems to have found that even the fair Bertha and
the infant son were pleasures whose capacity to satisfy
was not unlimited ; or else the man within him urged
him to action against his old enemies, who had re-
commenced their forays. In any case, it was- -up
and away and to war again ! News of this came to
the Queen, and a band of low fellows was at once
dispatched to Badlieu.

Bertha and her infant son were slain. Into one
grave they were thrown, and over their bodies the
murderers heaped a cairn. Then, the thirst for
vengeance being slaked, the Queen took to her bed
and died- -fortunately for her — before the return of
her lord. He had inflicted a crushing blow on the
Danes, and came, flushed with victory, to Bertha,

o

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

carrying to his love the first story of the fight. He
found only the cairn !

Sick with despair, he commanded that the grave
be opened that he might gaze upon the remains of
his loved ones. With them he seems to have buried
his heart and his fortune ; for, after this unhappy
love-venture, his story becomes a tragic and terrifying
moral lesson. The way of the transgressor is hard,
and Grime paid dearly for his false step. The sub-
sequent narrative is not clear, and rests only on
tradition, but it is fitting. It runs to the effect that
his love-sickness lay so grievously upon him that he
lost all interest in living, and plunged madly into war
with Malcolm. At the crucial battle he was deserted
by his army, and taken prisoner by Malcolm. His
eyes were torn out ; prolonged tortures were inflicted
on him ; and he died in the deepest misery in the
eighth year of his reign.

Thereafter commences the authentic history of the
Castle, with the story of Malcolm III, and Margaret,
his beautiful and pious Queen.

CHAPTER II : Queen Margaret

CHAPTER II : Queen Margaret

F | AHE first epoch of importance in the history of

the Castle is reached with the advent of the

JL Malcolms. The romantic story of Malcolm

III and his wooing of Queen Margaret, is one of the

bright episodes in Scottish history. Malcolm's father,

Duncan, was slain by Macbeth, and Shakespeare in his

Tragedy of Macbeth, with his customary licence, has

made Margaret the mother of Malcolm instead of his

wife. Macduffis made to say:

.

The Queen that bore thee,
Offner upon her knees than on her feet,
Died every day she lived.

She was a very beautiful woman, and her life in the
Castle of Edinburgh was one long story of piety and
kindness, of tending the poor in sickness, of feeding
the hungry, and of aiding the oppressed. Legend
credits her with feeding three hundred people daily at
the Castle gates, waiting upon them on her bended
knee, like a vassal of her household. Not only did

* J

she sacrifice her own rich robes and treasures for the
benefit of the poor about her home, but on more than
one occasion she drained the treasury to succour them
in their need.

Her first meeting with Malcolm was the work of
accident, and took place in the picturesque setting of
an escape from vengeful pursuers, a storm at sea, and
a shipwreck on a rocky coast. Margaret left England

'3

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

after the death of Harold about 1067 because of the
Conquest by William of Normandy. After many minor
adventures, she reached the Forth in safety, but was
caught in a storm and wrecked on a part of the estuary
known to this day as St. Margaret's Hope. (The
exact landing place is perhaps a little vague, as in
some chronicles it is referred to as " the landing place
of the headland " at Rosyth.) It would seem clear,
however, that after finding shelter in St. Margaret's
Hope, she, with her brother the Atheling, her mother
and sister, and the refugee English lords, gained the
mainland, and were there nobly received by Malcolm
Canmore, who had himself once received Saxon
hospitality whilst in exile.

During the days that followed, Malcolm, with the
ardour of his time and race, pursued Margaret and
true love, and eventually gained his reward at Dun-
fermline, when she became his Consort and Queen of
Scotland. With inspired wisdom, he placed in her
hands the internal polity of his kingdom, and she,
inspired in her turn, ministered to him in such ways
as would most gratify him. His meals were served
to him on dishes of gold and silver, but so illiterate
was he that he was unable to read the dainty missals
which his tender wife wrought and presented to him
from time to time. He would show his appreciation
of these loving tokens by pressing them solemnly to
his bosom and kissing them reverently.
Five children blessed their union — three sons,

QUEEN MARGARET GIVING FOOD TO THE POOR

MONRO S. ORR
Page 14

little x
^ the Jar

'. St. M

IHT ()T UOO-J ,)Xr/!,

Saxo

The Story of Edinbur gh Castle

Edward, Edgar, and David, and two daughters, the
elder of whom, Matilda, lived to become the popular
queen of Henry I of England. Until her death, which
took place in a tower of the Castle, destroyed later in
the great siege of 1573, Margaret lived with her
children in a state of quiet happiness that was unusual
in royal families of the period. Among the monu-
ments remaining to her memory is the little oratory
near the Mons Meg Battery, the predecessor of which
on the same site she herself built as a private chapel
during her residence at the Castle. Outwardly it
possesses all the charm of simplicity, and is regarded
as the oldest and the smallest Chapel Royal in Scot-
land. The mixed masonry work in the south wall
will at once attract the attention of the archaeologist
since it illustrates the various periods of restoration.
To the casual observer it suggests a patchwork device
in stone. The measurements of the nave of this tiny
house of prayer will give some idea of its general size ;
it measures within but 1 6 feet by i o feet ! A modern
western entrance has been built up, and the ancient
one re-opened at the north-west corner of the nave,
giving on to the Mons Meg Battery.
The chancel, which is semicircular, is divided from
the nave by a fine Norman arch, decorated with
zigzag mouldings, with, on the exterior, a border of
lozenge-shaped ornaments. The plain barrel roof of
the nave has been restored in ashlar, and the old coved
roof has been re-plastered, so that little is left of the

'5

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

original. The small round-headed windows which fill
the chancel with a dusky light now carry stained glass.
The eastern one commemorates a lady recently
connected with the Castle. The other in the
chancel represents St. Margaret, and the two on the
south side of the nave represent Malcolm Canmore
and their son, David I. The window in the east
gable bears the sacred monogram, and this Latin
inscription :--//. jfcdicula Beat<e Margarita Scotm.
T^egime gu^e ob. A.D. MXCIII patriot ingraft negli-
gentia lapsa auspiciis Victorite Margarita? prognate
restituta A.D. MDCCCLIIL For some years the
oratory was used as a powder magazine, but largely
by the zealous efforts of Dr. Daniel Wilson and
others, it was recovered from such base uses, and
was, as the inscription shows, restored in 1853. The
restoration extended practically to the entire build-
ing. The arch dividing the apse from the nave
was happily preserved intact, and in some of its
crevices one may still find vestiges of the colouring with
which the chapel was illuminated in the fourteenth
century. The original Norman stone font has been
replaced by a replica, given by the Society of Anti-
quaries of Scotland, and here all children of the
soldiers' families who are born within the Castle walls
are christened.

To this quaint little shrine Queen Margaret would
daily resort, and she spent many silent hours in prayer
for the safety of her family and the Scottish army

16

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

during the siege of Alnwick Castle, then held by
William Rufus. It was the news of the result of this
expedition that brought about her death. She was
already suffering from severe illness, brought on by
exposure while pursuing her acts of devotion during
a cruel winter, and when the story came that Malcolm
and their eldest son had both fallen in battle, she died
of grief two days later, on November 16, 1093, in
her forty-seventh year.

Bishop Turgot, in his Life of St. Margaret, has
left a touching picture of the deathbed scene. In her
last moments she lifted her hands to heaven, saying in
a faint but unquavering voice : " Praise and blessing
be to Thee, Almighty God, that Thou hast been
pleased to make me endure so bitter anguish in the
hour of my departure, thereby, as I trust, to purify
me in some measure from the corruption of my sins ;
and Thou, Lord Jesus Christ, who through the will
of the Father, has enlivened the world by Thy death,
oh, deliver me ! ' Uttering the last two words she
peacefully closed her eyes and died. A few hours
previous to her death she had been carried to mass in
her little chapel, holding in her hands a crucifix of
gold decorated with an ivory figure, enclosing a relic,
a fragment of the true cross, which became known as
c the black rood of Scotland.'

On hearing of the death of his brother Malcolm
on the battlefield, Donald Bane, who on the usurpa-
tion of Macbeth had taken refuge in the Isles,

c 17

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

proclaimed himself King, and at the head of an army of
wild Highlanders from the West, clad in their primi-
tive dress of deerhide, marched on Edinburgh. His
immediate object was to take the life of Edgar, the
youthful heir to the throne, while the Court and
family, then lodged within the Castle walls, were
mourning their triple loss. Relying on the almost
inaccessible rock to hold his prey, Donald Bane, " The
Fair-headed," determined to secure the regular access
facing the town on the east side. But fate was
against him. Through a postern on the west side,
down a steep declivity of the rock, the children
escaped, and through it a few days later the body
of Margaret was secretly conveyed and taken to
Dunfermline Abbey. There is a legend to the effect
that, during the escape, a miraculous mist arose from
the sea which veiled the cortege from the view of the
insurgents, and covered it for a distance of nine miles
until it had crossed the Forth.

Margaret was canonized by Pope Innocent IV in
1251, and at the Reformation the Abbot removed
her head in a jewelled casket, and fled with it to a
Jesuit settlement at the Castle. Just before the birth of
her son James, Queen Mary had the head of Queen
Margaret brought to her at Edinburgh Castle, that
she might receive benefit from the presence of the
sacred relic. After her enforced flight, the relic
remained for some time in safe custody in Scotland ;
it was afterward taken successively to Antwerp and

NORMAN ARCH IN ST. MARGARET'S CHAPEL

Page 1 8

I vU"\

His
the

rK.

< ' .

M.».r»e, " T
•/-Ur ace
: t tare w.

r-/T,HM/i)MAM /i>. /I H'JMA X/iMMO^. ^ gj^

hildren

cti to
t Stct
from

of the
miles

nnoccnt
\hbot

tht- b»*ti. '•

; •• i -

-"..

l^s^M^^P^^
fc^#^4s£ik^,^^

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

to Douai, and in the French Revolution it disap-
peared. The bodies of Margaret and Malcolm are
said to have reached the church of St. Lawrence in
the Escurial, but apparently they are not now identifi-
able there.

Her son Edgar, who had fled to England to seek
the protection of his uncle, Edgar Atheling, returned
and recaptured the throne at the point of the sword.
Fourteen years later he died at the Castle, and was
succeeded by Alexander I. At this stage we find
definite signs that Edinburgh was recognized as a
Royal Borough and residence; and, indeed, many
local features still existing trace their origin to the time
of David I, heir to Alexander. He founded the
abbey of Holyrood, on the site on which it stands to-
day. Among the many gifts of the founder to his
new monastery were the churches of the Castle and
St. Cuthbert's, and one plot of land belonging to the
latter is marked by "the fountain which rises near the
king's garden on the road leading to St. Cuthbert's
Church." The full story of the well and the garden,
however, comes at a later stage in the history of the
Castle.

King David, it will be remembered, is the central
figure in the legend of The White Hart, which,
Daniel Wilson says, probably had its origin in some
real occurrence magnified by the superstition of a rude
and illiterate age. It is recorded that on Rood Day,
the 1 4th of September, in the harvest of 1128, King

19

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

David, in the fourth year of his reign, was residing at
the Castle which was surrounded by " ane gret forest,
full of hartis, hyndis, toddis, and sic like manner of
beistis." After the celebration of mass on Rood Day,
contrary to the dissuasions of a holy canon named
Alkwine,1 he yielded to the solicitations of some of his
nobles and set forth to hunt. Whilst riding through
"the vail that lyis to the eist fra the said Castell,
quhare now lyis the Canongeite," the noise of the
bugles aroused the wild beasts of the forest and
brought them from their dens. By some mischance
the King was separated from his party, and his horse
flung him heavily to the ground. As he arose, bruised
and shaken, he found himself confronted with a
huge white stag, wearing a fearsome set of horns.
Immediately, it lowered its head to attack him. The
delinquent King drew his short hunting sword
and prepared to defend himself as best he might, when
there appeared before him a silver cloud, out of which
swam a cross of surpassing beauty. Stretching out
his hand in mute astonishment, he seized the emblem,
whereupon the stag fled away through the valley.
After some minutes' rest, during which he sought to
recover his senses, he returned to the Castle, chastened
and humiliated. But the avenging spirit had not yet
finished with him. No sooner had he fallen asleep on
a couch in his apartment than there appeared to him

1 Alkwine was head of the Augustinian Monks then resident in Edinburgh
Castle, and is often referred to as David's Confessor. He was the first Abbot
of Holyrood House.

20

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

the patron saint of Scotland, St. Andrew, who
instructed him that on the spot where his erring life
had been spared, he should found a monastery for the
canons of St. Augustine. Here, accordingly, he built
the Abbey of Holy rood, where the miraculous cross
was preserved.

Before the completion of the Abbey, the monks were
accommodated in the Castle, and occupied a building
which was originally a nunnery ; but it was deemed
expedient to transfer the nuns elsewhere, for, as was
truly stated, monks were "fitter to live among soldiers
than the nuns."

David, who was one of the earliest monarchs to
occupy the Castle as a permanent residence, was one
of the finest of Scotland's royal line. Of an easy,
democratic manner, he spent most of his leisure in the
cultivation of his garden and in the study of horti-
culture. He was found dead in the priory of Hexham
whilst on his knees at prayer, and in the year 1153
his grandson Malcolm succeeded to the throne.

21

CHAPTER III : Dark Days

CHAPTER III : <Dark T)ays

I^W^IS kindliness won for King David the affec-
tions of his subjects. Aldred says : " I have
JL seen him quit his horse and dismiss his
hunting equipage when even the humblest of his
subjects desired an audience j he sometimes employed
his leisure hours in the culture of his garden, and in
the philosophical amusement of budding and engraft-
ing trees." He was succeeded by his grandson
Malcolm the Fourth, who reigned for twelve years,
during which the Castle seems to have enjoyed a
time of comparative peace. Malcolm had made
Scone his capital, so that, although he frequently
resided in the Castle, perhaps Edinburgh did not
figure so much in the story of his life. In 1153 he
appointed Galfrid de Melville, of Melville in Lothian,
to be governor of the fortress. De Melville proved
himself a very prudent ruler and was a great benefactor
to the monks there in residence. When Malcolm
died in 1 165 the succession fell to William, his eldest
brother, known as William the Lion, who resided at
Haddington and continued doing so long after his
coronation } but many of his state documents are
dated and inscribed " Apud monasterium Sanctae
Crucis de Castello"

William disturbed the harmony which had prevailed
between the two countries during his father's reign by
invading England at the head of 80,000 men and
ravished the northern counties, but he was captured

D 25

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

near Alnwick — it is said treacherously — and treated
in a barbarous fashion. His release, however, was
speedily arranged by the surrender of the Castle of
Edinburgh to the English King as a pledge for a
ransom of ^£ 100,000. Fortunately for Scotland that
which was lost in war was restored through a romantic
incident ; a marriage was arranged between William
and Ermengarde de Beaumont, a cousin of Henry,
and the Castle was given as a dowry to the new
Queen. It had been held by an English garrison for
nearly twelve years. The next important event in the
history of the Castle took place when Alexander the
Second, the son of William, convened his first
Parliament within its walls on his accession in 1215 }
and a still further prominence was given to Edinburgh
by a provincial synod being held in the city by Cardinal
PAleran, the legate of Pope Gregory the Ninth. It
is noteworthy that one of the eight monasteries of the
mendicant order founded by Alexander in various
parts of Scotland stood on the site of the present
University building on South Bridge. More eventful
times were in store for the Castle during the long
reign of Alexander III, who succeeded his father in
1233. After his coronation he took up his residence
in the old fortress, where a bard, or sennachie, recited
to him a Gaelic poem containing a recital of the King's
ancestors from the time of Fergus. This bard was
probably Thomas the Rhymer, who was during this
period at the height of his reputation.

THOMAS THE RHYMER RECITES A GAELIC
POEM TO ALEXANDER III

MONRO S. ORR
Pajf 26

of

I that

* romantic

n William

of Henry,

the new

garnson

for

o*/or/ his first

^ :il 1215;

Ftlinhuroh

^ o

hv Cardinal

hv. Ninth. It

ifiira^tcric^ of the

m various

'{ riu- present

c\ttitful

:,c du he long

^o

:c-Jr father in

fW$ residence

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

It is interesting to note that these minstrels not only
sang to the harp verses composed by themselves, but
they accompanied their songs with mimicry and action,
which were much admired in those rude times and
supplied the want of more refined entertainment.
Alexander became betrothed to Margaret, the daughter
of Henry III of England, and nine years later, in
1251, their marriage was celebrated at York.
The Queen, who was only fifteen, was greatly dis-
appointed at the Castle as a residence, describing it as
"a sad and solitary place, without verdure and by
reason of its vicinity to the sea, unwholesome," and
she complained that she was not permitted to make
excursions through the kingdom, nor to choose her
female attendants. The disappointment of the girl-
Queen suggests that in those days the Castle was more
of a stronghold than a residence, and had undergone
some change from the days of Queen Margaret, the
wife of Canmore, who lived within its walls in com-
parative comfort.

Although very young, Alexander presided at the
assemblies for the transaction of public affairs, which
were held, it is believed, in St. Margaret's Chamber-
the room in which Queen Margaret died.
During Alexander the Third's reign the Castle, under
its governor William of Kinghorn, was greatly
repaired and its fortifications were considerably
strengthened ; not only the Regalia of Scotland but

all the records were in its safe keeping.

27

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

The English King Henry's ambition was to annex
Scotland, an ambition viewed by a considerable
portion of the Scottish community with a certain
amount of satisfaction. The kingdom consequently
became divided into two rival parties ; one favoured
the English King, and the other, which was bitterly
against the proposal, held possession of Edinburgh
and its Castle. However, unfortunately for the
nationalists, whilst they were engaged in preparing
for a Parliament to be held at Stirling, the Earl of
March, Alan Dureward, and other leaders surprised
and captured the Castle. The royal pair, who had
been kept more or less in a state of captivity, were
then liberated, and eventually we find them holding
an interview with Henry at Wark Castle in
Northumberland. The Castle continued to be the
chief residence of Alexander during the remainder of
his reign, and he held his courts and conducted
judicial affairs within its walls up to the time of his
tragic death on the shores of Fife in 1290.
And now Edinburgh Castle enters into the darkest
chapters of its history, and we find many tales of
bloody deeds and wars. Bruce, Baliol, and others
claimed succession to the throne, and on the pretext
that he would arbitrate in the dispute, the wily
Plantagenet, Edward the First of England, advanced
across the border and pushed on to Edinburgh, where
he laid siege to the Castle.

Great damage was done to the buildings by the

28

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

military " engines" of the English soldiers, and after
fifteen days the Castle capitulated on the 1 1 th of
June 1291. Edward left a garrison of English
soldiers with Sir Radulf Basset de Drayton as
governor } he ransacked the entire fortress of its
records and the other contents of its treasury, a list
of which was drawn up and included the famous
Black Rood of Scotland. Edward ordered some of
the records to remain in the Castle under the care of
Basset, but the more important ones were brought to
England, and those that dealt with the old independ-
ence of Scotland were all destroyed and the remainder
allowed to decay in the Tower of London.
On the 8th of July 1292 we find Edward once
more at the Scottish capital, where, styling himself
"Lord Paramount of Scotland," he received within
St. Margaret's Chapel the enforced oath of fealty
from Adam, Abbot of Holyrood; John, Abbot of
Newbattle ; Sir Brian le Jay, Preceptor of the Scottish
Templars ; the Prior of St. John of Jerusalem ; and
Christine, Prioress of Emanuel, in Stirlingshire.
After the Bruce's refusal to accept the crown,
Edward decided in favour of John Baliol, and issued
orders to the captains of all Scottish castles to deliver
them up to John, King of Scotland.
"Shame at last," says Grant, "filled the heart of
Baliol } he took to the field and lost the battle of
Dunbar," where he had gone to encounter Edward and
his mixed army, and after the defeat Baliol took the

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

road to Forfar, where the worthless Scot persuaded
the Earl of Atholl that by the disaster at Dunbar all
was so lost, that if he wished to save his life he must
surrender himself to Edward. The brave Douglas
tried to alter Baliol's resolution, but without effect.
Edward, reinforced by fifteen thousand Welsh and
a horde of Scottish traitors, returned and besieged
Edinburgh Castle, which surrendered after a fruitless
defence on the 6th of June 1296, and with ruth-
less severity the English King put the whole garrison
to the sword. He now made Walter de Hunter-
combe, a baron of Northumberland, the governor ;
but, the year following, Wallace the Hero of Scotland
made a clean sweep of the invaders, drove them out
of the country after his great victory at Stirling, and
recaptured all the fortresses, Edinburgh Castle in-
cluded.

But ere long the English returned, in 1298, with
Edward at the head of an army a hundred thousand
strong. The English monarch sent his envoy, Lord
de Spencer, with a message to Wallace offering him
the throne of Ireland if he would abandon the cause
of Scotland. This offer Wallace proudly rejected,
whereupon Lord de Spencer stepped forward and
said : " Since Sir William Wallace rejects the grace
of his liege lord Edward, King of England, offered
to him this once, and never to be again repeated, thus
saith the King, in his mercy, to the earls, barons,
knights and commonalty of Scotland ! To every one

3°

WILLIAM FRANK PILOTS A PARTY UP THE
ROCK BY A SECRET PATHWAY

MONRO S. ORR
Page 30

The Srory of E

road to Fr.rfjr, where the
the Earl of Athol! that hv
was so Ii>*t. that if h«- wi*h

-•
besic

nh ruth-

!H1 '!'! YTMA'I /- >.tO.II'F /IX/.M'-} r/AU. Jp//'-'

Y/ //H'lVM Tr4>r;;^^ A -YH XJOM

>!,iQ x IW.';,,M ^e-rnor ;

.„ ,jvi; Scotland

them out

't.^nig, and

?i>h c\:stie in-

, , .O , ,- L

~9o, with
thousand

proud! ejected,

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

of them, chief and vassal, excepting the aforesaid rebel,
he grants an amnesty to all their past treasons j
provided that, within twenty-four hours after they
hear the words of this proclamation, they acknowledge
their disloyalty with repentance, and laying down their
arms, swear fealty to their own lawful ruler, Edward,
the lord of the whole island, from sea to sea."
"Away to your King," said Bothwell, "and tell him
that Andrew Murray, and every honest Scot, is ready
to live or die by the side of Sir William Wallace."
Too well do Scotsmen know how the great defender
of Scotland was betrayed by Sir John Monteith, and
how in chains he was shipped to the Tower of London,
there to meet his death for the offence of having faith-
fully served his country.

Once again the Castle of Edinburgh was in the hands
of the English, and 1300 saw "Johan de Kingsston,
Connestable et Gardeyn du Chastel de Edenburgh,"
and he was succeeded four years later by Sir Piers de
Lombard, a knight of Gascony. But Robert Bruce
was now in arms and soon carried all before him. In
1311 he invaded England, and in the year following
he recaptured every Scottish stronghold with the
exception of the one at Edinburgh, the seizure of
which he had entrusted to Sir Thomas Randolph of
Strathdon, Earl of Moray, Bruce's nephew. The
English soldiers, suspecting the fidelity of Sir Piers de
Lombard, locked him up in a dungeon and under a
new commander prepared for a desperate defence of

31

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

the fortress, but by a clever stratagem it was restored
once more to the Scottish King.

Among the soldiers of Sir Thomas Randolph was one
William Frank (some accounts call him Francis) who
volunteered to pilot a party up the steep crags by a
secret and intricate pathway which he himself knew.
Having in past times lived in the garrison, he had been
accustomed to clamber down the rock during the night
to escape military durance in order to visit his lady, and
so became familiar with the way.

On a dark and stormy night (the 1 4th of March 1312)
Randolph, under the guidance of Frank, led thirty
brave men up the steep part of the Great Rock which
overhangs Princes Street Gardens, below which is

c?

the ruin of the Well-house Tower. At midnight
they scaled the walls, surprised the garrison, and after
a fierce fight overpowered them.

St. Piers de Lombard (sometimes called Laland), the
governor, who had been imprisoned by the suspicious
garrison, now joined the Scots, but King Robert
thinking that he had an English heart made him to
be "hangit and drawn."

Grant says : " There are indications that some secret
pathway known to the Scottish garrison existed, for
during some operations in 182,1 traces were found
of steps cut in the rock about seventy feet above
c Wallace's Cradle '• -a path supposed to have been
completed by a moveable ladder."

Bruce, who was now completely triumphant, decided
32

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

to dismantle the Castle to remove the temptation to
its recapture by the English, and for twenty-four years
it became a veritable ruin, only once being used, in
1335, by the remnant of the army of Guy Count
of Namur, who had landed at Berwick with a con-
siderable number of armed men to assist the
English. Guy was met on the Borough-Muir within
sight of the Castle by the Earl of Moray with a
powerful army, and here a fierce and bloody battle
ensued. During the fight a Scottish squire, Richard
Shaw, was challenged to single combat by a knight in
armour with a closed helmet in the train of the Count
After a brave encounter both fell, each transfixed by
his opponent's lance. On the bodies afterward being
stripped of their armour the chivalrous knight proved
to be a woman.

Very few of the Count's army escaped, and those who
did retreated to the Castle, now a bare ruin, where
they killed their horses and piled them up to make a
temporary rampart in a last attempt to defend them-
selves against the Scots. But hunger and thirst
deprived them of energy, and on the following day
they surrendered } their lives were spared by the Earl
of Moray on the promise not to bear arms again in
any Scottish war.

Edward III, not at all discouraged, again in 1336
pressed north, and again recaptured and rebuilt the
Castle.
In 1341 the Castle was once more restored to the

E 33

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

Scottish people by an ingenious stratagem planned by
a William Bulloch, who had been entrusted with the
custody of Cupar Castle for Baliol. "A man very
brave and faithful to the Scots," says Buchanan.
Under his directions, Walter Curry of Dundee
received into his ship two hundred Scottish warriors
under the command of William Douglas and Sir
Simon Fraser.

Anchoring in Leith Roads, Bulloch appeared himself
at the gates of the Castle, and represented to the
Governor that he was the master of an English craft
just arrived with a cargo of wines and provisions,
which he offered for sale. The bait took, and early
on the following morning, attended by a dozen
armed followers disguised as English sailors, the
trader appeared before the gates.
On entering the Castle they contrived to upset their
barrels and hampers so as to prevent the closing of
the gates, whereupon the guards were immediately
slain. At a signal given by the blast from a bugle-horn,
Douglas and his men sprang from their hiding-place
close by, raised their terrific war-cry, and rushed at the
garrison, who were overpowered after a fierce conflict,
and captured the Castle in the name of the young King
David II, who had succeeded his father on his death.
The following month David with his consort Johanna
landed from France to find that Scotland was once
again clear of the southern invaders.
A few years after the Scots became bent on a raid in

WILLIAM BULLOCH FIGHTS AT THE
CASTLE GATE

MONRO S. ORR

34

the

warriors
^vuglas and Sir

*red himself

,>H HJO.I.UJH M/a..ur/7 the

•IT/ H.II^A Knorlish craft

«o .1 ->M/oi/ .A isions,

and early

,\ dozen

..lots, the

•-t-t their
ii)sina ot

io!c-horn,
ling-place
Kcd at the

flict,

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

England, but they were defeated at Durham, the
young King was made captive and thrust into a
dungeon in Nottingham Castle, where he spent the
weary years of his captivity in engraving on a rock
the story of our Saviour's Passion.
In the treaty for his ransom we find the merchants and
burgesses of Edinburgh and the principal towns in
Scotland holding themselves responsible for its fulfil-
ment. A Parliament was held in the capital for the
final adjustment of the terms, at which the Regent
Robert (afterwards Robert II) presided.
There were seventeen burghs represented at the
meeting- -among them Edinburgh appears for the first
time at the head — in addition to the clergy and nobles.
After returning from England, David took up his
favourite residence within the Castle walls ; he at once
carried out extensive repairs and additions, enlarging
the fortifications, and building an extensive tower
which was erected on the east face of the rock,
immediately to the north of the site of the half-moon
battery. The outflanking walls of this tower have
lately been disclosed by excavations carried out by
H.M. Board of Works.

Here he died on February 22, 1371, in his forty-
seventh year, and was buried before the High Altar
in the Church of the Abbey of Holy rood.
This terminates the direct line of the Bruce, who had
fought so hard for their right to the Throne and for
the independence of their country.

35

CHAPTER IV : The "Black Dinner

CHAPTER IV : The Black Dinner

EDINBURGH, which had the characteristics of
a frontier town, was as yet a small burgh, even
a village. The houses were mostly thatched
with straw, and so could be easily repaired after having
been burnt by the invaders from over the border.
But the Castle, owing to its strength and the con-
venience of the Abbey, remained the chief residence
of the kings, and there they held their parliaments
and their courts of justice (and injustice sometimes).
Another reason for the importance of the Castle was
that the country round was fertile and provided
ample food-stuffs for those within the fortress.
With the accession of Robert II, the first of the
Stuarts, a new era began in the history of Edinburgh.
Daniel Wilson says : " From this time may be dated
its standing as the chief burgh of Scotland, though it
did not assume the full benefits arising from such a
position till the second James ascended the throne."
The relations of England and Scotland were more like
an armistice in time of war than any approach to
actual peace, so it was impossible for anything resem-
bling national progress to be made.
In 1383 King Robert II held his Court in the Castle,
and received there the ambassador of Charles VI of
France, with whom he renewed the league entered
into with his predecessor. So intimate was the inter-
course maintained between the two nations that the
manners of the people and the architecture of the

39

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

buildings were each based on the French model. The
next year we find the capital with its Castle again in
the hands of the English. The Scots under the Earls
of Douglas and March began the war with great
success, but the Duke of Lancaster at the head of
"an army almost innumerable," crossed the border
and headed straight for the capital, which was spared
from destruction owing to the hospitality the Duke
enjoyed there when an exile from the English Court.
This kindness the Scots paid no heed to, and they
followed and attacked him on his retreat into England.
In return, the following year he laid the town in ashes,
and amongst others the first building of St. Giles'
Church was entirely destroyed.

At the close of 1390 Robert III succeeded to
the throne, and again we find the ambassadors of
Charles VI at the Scottish Court, where they were
treated with great hospitality. They witnessed in the
Castle the signing and sealing of the treaty of mutual
aid and defence against the English which had been

£5 o

arranged and drafted by his father. Not long after
this ceremony, in 1400, Henry IV of England,
renewed the old claim of Edward to the right of
superiority over Scotland, and in letters to the Scottish
King and his nobles demanded that homage should be

* i i * • *— '

paid to him at a meeting which he appointed to be

held in the Castle.

Henry kept to his word, and we find him with a

numerous army before the Castle previous to the day

4o

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

he had appointed. From the fortress the Duke of
Rothsay despatched a messenger with a challenge to
meet him where he pleased, with a hundred nobles
on either side to settle the quarrel in that way. But
" King Henry was in no humour to forego the
advantages he already possessed at the head of a more
numerous army than Scotland could raise ; and so
contenting himself with a verbal equivocation in reply
to this knightly challenge, he sat down with his
numerous host before the Castle, till (with the usual
consequences of the Scottish reception of such invaders)
cold and rain and absolute dearth of provisions com-
pelled him to raise the inglorious siege and hastily
recross the border, without doing any notable injury
either in his progress or retreat."

Together with Holy rood, the Castle was the residence
of the aged Robert, never a strong King, neither a bad
one, and his once beautiful Queen Annabella Drum-
mond. The Queen was one of the Drummonds of
Stobhall, a family famed for the loveliness of feature
and complexion of their women, and, as Holinshed
states, she was married rather for her singular beauty
"than for anie benefit that might grow to the Common-
wealth from her alliance " : nevertheless she had great

' o

domestic virtues and her prudence in counsel was

commendable.

Upon the death of Robert in 1420, James succeeded

to the throne. He, however, was a prisoner in

Windsor Castle, where he had been confined for

F 41

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

nineteen years, having been captured at sea when
quite a boy by the English. Towards the sum
demanded as a ransom for his release, Edinburgh
contributed 50,000 merks, which shows that the
town was gaining in prosperity.
James I was the royal poet and "belonged," says
Washington Irving, "to one of the most brilliant
eras of our literary history, and establishes the claims of
his country to a participation in its primitive honours."
In one of the stanzas of his long poem called 'The
Kingis Quhair [or Book], which he wrote during his
imprisonment at Windsor, James describes the circum-
stances of the attachment he formed to Lady Jane
Beaufort, who subsequently became his Queen. The
verse describing her rich attire may be considered as
an accurate description of the female costume of
that day :

Off hir array the form gif I sail write,

Toward hir goldin haire and rich atyre

In fret-wise couchit was with perllis quhite

And grete balas lemyng as the fyre,

With mony ane emeraut and faire saphire y

And on hir hede a chaplet fresch of hewe,

Off plumy s par tit rede, and quhite, and blewe.

When James returned to Scotland to enter upon the
cares of royalty he resided for some time in Perth.
Owing to his politic plans for the pacification of the

Highland clans it was necessary to have frequent

42

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

assemblies of Parliament there; but in 1430 he came
to reside at the Castle of Edinburgh, attended by his
Queen Jane and the Court. The Lord of the Isles,
who had been in rebellion against the resolute measures
of the King, came privately to Edinburgh, and when
James and the Queen were at divine service at Holy-
rood, he prostrated himself on his knees and holding
the point of his sword in his own hand presented the
hilt to the King, intimating that he put his life at his
Majesty's mercy.

At the Queen's request his life was spared and he was
imprisoned for only a short space of time in Tantallon
Castle, to be released, by the leniency of James, with
many other prisoners, on the occasion of the Queen
giving birth to two sons in the royal Palace within
the Castle walls. One of these infants, Alexander,
died ; the other, James, lived to ascend the throne.
The Lord of the Isles is said to have been chosen by
his Majesty to be sponsor for the royal infants at the
christening.

James I exercised himself in making stringent laws,
one of which required the magistrates of the royal
burgh to have in readiness seven or eight ladders
twenty feet in length, three or four saws, and six or
more cleeks of iron "to draw down timber and ruiffes
that are fired." Another law compelled visitors to
live at the 'hostillaries' and not with their friends, so
as to encourage the trade of the former. There were
also laws in regard to dress that forbade any person

43

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

who possessed not more than 200 merks of yearly rent
to wear silks or fur, and commanded that wives and
their daughters should dress according to their station
with short curches on their heads with small hoods ;
and as to their gowns, "that na woman weare mer-
trickes nor letteis nor tailes unfit in length, nor furred
under but on the Halie-daie." Also it was enjoined
that no labourers were to wear anything on work-
days but grey and white, and the curches of their
wives to be of their own making and not to exceed in
cost "of xl pennyes the erne."

On February 21, 1438, James I, the poet, states-
man, and soldier, fell under the dappers of his

. . , . oo

rebellious subjects in the Blackfriars Monastery at
Perth, in the presence of his Queen, in whose arms,
indeed, he was left to die.

The news spread sorrow and indignation all over
Scotland and within less than forty days those respon-
sible for the horrible crime had been brought
to the Castle of Edinburgh for trial in the
great hall. The less important of the conspirators
were at once handed over to the hangman, but the
titled leaders were dealt with in quite a different way,
being made to suffer tortures which had been specially
devised to satisfy the revenge of the embittered Queen
rather than the indignation of the people.
The Earl of Atholl was elevated on a pillar at the
Cross, and in the gaze of the citizens was crowned
with a red-hot chaplet. The next day he was dragged

44

THE PARLIAMENT HALL

Page 44

ast

•
9

i

md

•

furred

*?» )ed

their
• exceed

UAH T'/'ir/;/-.i.!H/'l« ,11 !T

<.t, states-
rs of his
>nastery at
ose arms,

all over
.>se respon-
brought
•:ai in the
!te conspirators
:;^m;tn, but the
• * d-,tV...u.nt way,
peciallv

with

44

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

on a hurdle through the High Street, where he was
at length beheaded. His head was exposed on a pole
at the Cross, and his body quartered and sent to the
four chief towns. Robert Graham also, one of the
most active of the regicides, suffered in the same
way.

The assassination of James I exposed the kingdom to
the evils of a long minority. The administration of
the late King had been highly resented by his nobles,
and his death was viewed with secret satisfaction. It
had been the aim of James to reduce within constitu-
tional limits the ponderous pretensions of the nobility,
who saw the property of the Crown which they had
appropriated, torn from their grasp.
During the minority of the new King, who was only
five years old at his accession, and the feeble govern-
ment of a Regency, they undid all that the late
monarch had accomplished, and vied with each other
to humble the Crown and restore their own splendour,
to which at that time there seems to have been no
check.

The Queen, after avenging the death of her husband,
hastened back to Edinburgh from the north with the
young King and found shelter within the walls of the
Castle. The governor, Sir William Crichton, was a
friend of the late King, and as master of the house-
hold the Queen placed in him implicit trust, and feeling
free from immediate danger she awaited the approaching
meeting of the estates. Parliament assembled at

45

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

the Castle on March 20, 1438, and adopted
immediate measures for the coronation of the young
King. He was conducted in procession from the
Castle to the Abbey of Holyrood, and before a great
concourse of nobility, clergy, and representatives of
the burgh, and amid the great rejoicings of the people,
he was crowned King James II of Scotland. During
his minority his care was entrusted to the Queen-
Mother (with an annual allowance of 4000 merks),
while Crichton was appointed Chancellor of the
Kingdom and had the general administration of
affairs. It was not long before he usurped the office
of the Queen-Mother as custodian of the King.
The appointment of Archibald, the fifth Earl of
Douglas, as Lieutenant-General of the kingdom, was
a concession to the pride of the nobles and a
guarantee for the protection of their privileges, as
both Livingstone and Crichton had been elevated by
James I from an inferior class.

The house of Douglas again flourished, and had risen
to a height of power which rivalled even that of the
Crown ; indeed, the Earl had attained the state of an
independent monarch, meeting the measures of the
Chancellor with haughty defiance which threatened the
kingdom with civil war. Both Crichton and Living-
stone viewed with suspicion and a certain amount of
fear the increasing power of the Earl, who in turn
looked on them with scorn as his inferiors.

The Queen to the great disappointment of herself and

46

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

party found that her son, in the custody of the
Chancellor, was beyond her control. Crichton refused
to allow him to leave Edinburgh ; but under the
pretence of great friendship to Crichton and a long-
ing desire to see her son, she gained full permission
to visit the King and to take up her abode also in
the Castle. At length, having lulled all suspicion,
she made out that she wished to go on a pilgrimage
to the White Kirk of Brechin, and bade farewell
to the Chancellor overnight, commending her son
to his care. She left the Castle at early dawn in
1439 with two chests, borne on horses, containing
her wardrobe ; but in one of them she had cleverly
concealed the young King amongst her linen. Getting
safely to Leith, she set sail thence for Stirling Castle,
at that time commanded by the Regent Livingstone,
who received her and the King with joy and unfurled
the Royal standard. Livingstone took immediate
steps to raise an army of the Queen's friends and his
own followers, and laid siege to the Chancellor in his
stronghold at Edinburgh, to compel him either to
resign his office or to recognize the rights of the
Queen-Mother as guardian. Driven to despair,
Crichton resolved at last to endeavour to enlist the
sympathy of Douglas, and sent a message to the Earl
offering him his constant friendship in return for his
assistance ; but Douglas rejected the overture and
declared that both Crichton and Livingstone were " a
pair of mischievous traitors whom it became not the

47

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

honourable state of noblemen to help," and finished
by expressing his desire for their speedy destruction.
The wily Chancellor, thus scornfully repulsed by
Douglas, secured a two days' truce, and the rival states-
men met before the gates of the Castle, each being
attended by a group of his own followers. Crichton
urged a speedy reconciliation as a safeguard against
their common enemy ; terms were eventually made,
and the Chancellor delivered the keys into the King's
own hand, whereupon Livingstone entered the Castle
in triumph.

A number of banquets followed, during which the
rivals vied with each other in expressions of friendship.
Jane, the Queen-Mother, though ostensibly restored,
on the reconciliation of the statesmen, to her office as
guardian of the King, found herself so jealously
watched by Livingstone, that dreading the dangers
of her defenceless position, she contracted a second
marriage with Sir James Stewart, commonly called
'the Black Knight of Lorn,' a man of high rank
and approved valour. To the ambitious designs of
Livingstone, the marriage of the Queen was eminently
favourable, as, by placing her under tutelage, she was
thus disqualified, by the laws of Scotland, from taking
any part in the administration. Her husband was the
friend of the Douglases ; and the governor, alarmed
at this accession of power to that great family, resolved
to take advantage of the marriage to consolidate his

own authority. His measures were speedily taken,

48

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

and partook largely of his characteristic craft and
cunning. Sir James Stewart, then residing at Stirling,
was seized and thrown into prison, on pretence that
he had conspired against the state } and scarcely had
the Queen received intelligence of the fate of her
husband, when, by orders of Livingstone, her own
private apartments were entered, and herself hurried
to confinement on a similar charge, after a brave and
unsuccessful resistance by her servants. These arbitrary
acts were immediately followed by a convention at
Stirling — composed entirely of persons in the interests
of the governor. Before this assembly the unhappy
Queen was conducted, trembling for her own and her
husband's safety ; and there she surrendered, by
solemn deed, the person of her son into the hands of
Sir Alexander Livingstone, resigning at the same time
the royal residence of Stirling Castle and the annual
allowance made to her by Parliament as Queen-
Mother. The deed of transference having been
solemnly ratified, the Queen and her husband were
set at liberty, while the young King was delivered to
Livingstone, who forthwith retained him in a kind of
honourable captivity. By the proceedings of the
Stirling convention, the influence of Livingstone
became paramount in the state ; and Crichton, who
had calculated on an equitable division of power, saw,
with surprise and dismay, the functions of government
monopolized by his rival. He determined, therefore,
with all speed to restore the balance, and his measures

49

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

were taken with great cunning, and were attended
with complete success. Having consulted with his
friends, and secured their co-operation, he rode on a
dark night, with a hundred chosen men, to the Park
of Stirling, where he placed his followers in small
parties, to avoid suspicion and discovery. Fortunately
for the success of his enterprise, Livingstone was at
this time absent. At the break of day the King left
the Castle, as was his custom, to enjoy the pastime of
hunting, attended by a small body of horsemen, and
found himself suddenly surrounded by groups of
armed men, who hailed him with every demonstration
of loyalty. At the same time Crichton advanced, and
kneeling before him, protested his devotion to his
person, condemned the ungenerous captivity to which
the jealousy and ambition of Livingstone had con-
signed him, and offered the services of himself and

.
his friends in securing to him immediate freedom from

a state of undignified restriction. The young monarch,
in spite of the opposition of his retinue, lent a willing
ear to the solicitations of Crichton, hastened with him
to Edinburgh, and made his entrance into that city,
accompanied by an additional escort of 4000 men,
before Livingstone had received any intelligence of
his movements. The escape of the King and the
treachery of Crichton filled Livingstone with mingled
rage and fear. However, he curbed his temper and
hastening to Edinburgh he sent a message to Crichton
deploring their alienation, and expressed his willing-

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

ness to submit their disputes to the arbitration of
mutual friends. They accordingly met, with the
Bishops of Aberdeen and Moray, in the Church of
St. Giles, and sealed their reconciliation by mutual
concessions. The young King was restored to the
custody of Livingstone, and Crichton resumed, with
increased power, his office of Chancellor.
The reconciliation was thus quickly brought about
principally owing to their common hatred of the Earl
of Douglas, who, however, shortly after was seized
with fever and died at Restalng on June 26, 1439.
His great possessions and titles descended to his son
William, the sixth earl, a boy of seventeen years, whose
arrogant pretensions soon caused national troubles.
Besides openly defying the laws and maintaining a
state dangerous to the Throne, it had been conjectured
that Douglas had subjected himself even to a graver
charge by impugning the title of James II to the
Throne, and preferring the claim of his uncle Malise,
Earl of Strathearn, who, as the descendant of
Euphemia Ross, the second Queen of Robert II, was
supposed by some to have a better right to the Crown
than its present possessor. Douglas never rode out
without a personal following of a thousand horse j
he was believed to have held a court which in brilliance
outshone the solemnity of Parliament j and he paid
no heed to the commands of his sovereign to appear
in the royal presence. His conduct afforded his

enemies sufficient ground to give at least the appear-

51

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

ance of justice to their subsequent proceedings, and as
soon as their plans were matured they took immediate
measures to secure his person. Crichton and Living-
stone dispatched an invitation in their own names to
William Douglas soliciting his presence at a banquet
along with his retinue, so that the Earl might cultivate
the friendship of the young King 5 they expressed
their admiration for him and their regret at the mis-
understanding which had separated them. Douglas
easily fell into the snare. The Chancellor met him
some twelve miles from the castle of Crichton, at
which place he was royally entertained for the night,
and next day the whole party rode to Edinburgh,
where they were received with open arms. Before
entering the town some of his followers, observing
that there were too many private messages passing
between the wily Crichton and Livingstone, reminded
the Earl of the injunction of his father that he and
his brother should never go together where there was
a shadow of danger, and entreated him to send David
home. The good counsel, however, was not followed,
and relying on the honour of Crichton and Living-
stone, the young nobles rode fearlessly to the Castle,
where they were conducted to the apartments of the
young monarch, who became speedily attached to
them, and they remained a few days enjoying the
hospitality of their royal host. At last the hour of
tragedy struck; the banquet was prepared in the great
hall which occupies the southern side of the quad-

THE BLACK DINNER : THE ATTACK UPON
THE DOUGLASES BY CRICHTON'S MEN

MONRO S. ORR

5*

•iquet

Htivate

vpressed

the mis-

m. Douglas

/,."! j A'ji:\\ I-. ;in i >i/i//!(i /O/.JH .IHT ?.

' ^ | r '.iHt''' rnCt "im

nchton, at

M • ihc night,

uinburph,

o

Before

:-r>, - !bsers'incj;
i^res passing
•'"•e, ivminded
it he and

send
r i •

astle,
" the

'The Story of Edinburgh Castle

rangle known as Palace Square 5 the brothers were
placed at the table beside the King, whilst in the
meantime the portcullis at the Castle was lowered.
At the close of the entertainment a sable bull's head,
the symbol of death, was placed upon the table. The
Douglases, who knew at once what to expect,
immediately drew their swords, but were dragged
away by an armed band of Crichton's vassals, with
loud cries of treason, to an antechamber, where they
underwent a mock trial which was speedily terminated,
despite the entreaties of the youthful monarch, with
the sentence of death. They were hurried into the
court of the Castle and cruelly beheaded. Three
days afterward their friend and counsellor Malcolm
Fleming of Cumbernauld shared the same fate. This
tragic event appears to have taken place in 1441.
In 1753 some workmen who were digging for a
foundation to erect a new storehouse found the gold
handles and plates of a coffin supposed to have been
the one in which the young Earl was buried.
Godscroft, the historian of the Douglases, quotes the
following rude rhyme:

Edinburgh Castle, 'Towne and Tower.
(jod grant thou sinke for sinne ;
Idtf that even for the black dinnour
Earle Douglas gat therein.

The earldom of Douglas devolved upon his great-
uncle James, Lord of Abercorn, surnamed the Gross,

53

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

who quietly assumed the title and estates of his
nephew without opposition ; and the large unentailed
property of the late Earl, comprehending Galloway,
Wigton, Balveny, Ormond and Annandale, descended
to his only sister Margaret, who from her great
beauty was commonly called the Fair Maiden of
Galloway. The new Earl of Douglas silently matured
plans to restore the political influence of his house.
James cherished a dislike to those who for years had
made him their puppet, and he gained the friendship
of Douglas and made him Lieutenant-General of the
kingdom as well as a member of the Privy Council.
Livingstone remained quietly at Stirling and on the
plea of old age surrendered his office as governor into
the hands of his eldest son; while Crichton fled from
the Court and threw himself into the Castle of Edin-
burgh, where he proceeded to lay in provisions, and
to strengthen the fortifications in the expectation of a
siege. The proceedings of Douglas speedily justified
the alarm of the Chancellor. Crichton was summoned
in the name of the King to appear at Stirling and
answer for his many acts of treason against the State }
but the proud baron, undismayed by the danger to
which he was exposed, and confident in the strength
of the fortress, replied only by an incursion into the
lands in Lothian belonging to Douglas and his
adherent, Sir John Forrester of Corstorphine, which
he wasted with fire and sword. In a Parliament sub-
sequently convened at Stirling he was proclaimed a

54

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

traitor, his estates confiscated, and his friends out-
lawed.

Kennedy, Bishop of St. Andrews, a prelate of great
wisdom and integrity, whose high talents and in-
corruptible honesty fitted him to be raised to the
post, was made Chancellor on the disgrace of
Crichton.

Douglas now commenced the siege of Edinburgh
Castle, which Crichton stood prepared to defend to the
last extremity ; after the lapse of nine weeks, however,
the besiegers finding that they were making little
progress in the reduction of the fortress, entered into
negotiations for peace, and the stout old baron capitu-
lated on terms in every way advantageous. His titles,
honours, and possessions were restored to him, and at
the solicitation of Douglas he was induced to join the
administration. Of his less fortunate adherents, some
just saved their lives by the forfeiture of their estates,
and others, including three members of the
Livingstone family, were tried, and lost their heads
within the Castle walls.

The death of the Queen -Mother occurred in 1445.
Her husband, Sir James Stewart, had calculated that
his connexion with the royal family would improve
his position ; and on discovering his mistake, and
finding himself the victim of suspicion and persecution,
he became gradually alienated from his wife, and
ultimately treated her with utter neglect. Compelled
at last to flee from Scotland, he deprived her even of

55

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

the slender protection which his presence afforded.
Thus abandoned, and pursued by the relentless malice
of her enemies, the health of the unhappy princess gave
way, and she died in the Castle of Dunbar. It is not
exactly known whether she chose the castle as a
sanctuary or had been violently carried there by its
possessor, Patrick Hepburn, a fierce freebooter ; but
the latter idea is not at all unlikely, as Hepburn was a
partisan of Douglas.

The King, who was now seventeen years old, began
to take an important share in the administration of
affairs of state, and his prudence excited the warmest
hopes of his friends. In 1449, by an exchange of
embassies, he found a suitable bride in the only
daughter and heiress of Arnold, Duke of Gueldres.
In the following year the engagement was formally
concluded at Brussels in the presence of envoys from
France. This enabled Crichton not only to renew
the ancient league between France and Scotland, but

C5 7

to conclude a treaty of defence between Burgundy
and Scotland.

By this time, 1450, the royal capital was assuming a
position of importance, and owing to the exposed
position of its southern side, it was deemed necessary
to enclose this part of the city by a fortified wall to
protect the wealth of the citizens from the constant
inroads of the English. The wall was consequently
built along the south declivity of the ridge on which

the old High Street of the town stands, from the
56

THE CASTLE FROM JOHNSTONE TERRACE
AT SUNSET

Page 56

a

wa«-

old, began

/'M'-i i iT«AO yHTration of

IA warmest

Mjhunge of

rhc only

7 wJ t.- 1 v.1 1 C- v^»

formally

vovs from

rr. renew

•uotland, but

< rt Burgundy

. i-.urr.5ng a

exposed

uccessarv

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

West Bow, which was the principal entrance to the
city from the west. It crossed the ridge of the High
Street at the Nether Bow, and terminated at the east
end of the North Loch. Here was the city built on
a hill, defended by an immense fortified wall, and
guarded by its Castle perched on a great rock at its
western extremity.

About the time when the wall was being built the
Scottish Court was preparing for the reception of
Mary de Gueldres, " a lady," says Drummond,
" young, beautiful, and of a masculine constitution."
It was decided at a meeting of Parliament that the
royal nuptials should be conducted on a scale of
grandeur suited to the occasion.

At length, on June 18, 1452, the vessels conveying
the bride and her retinue of princes, prelates, and
noblemen cast anchor in the Forth. She was met by
a tremendous crowd of all classes, and, accompanied
by a body-guard of three hundred horsemen, pro-
ceeded amidst great rejoicings to Holyrood Palace,
where she was received by her future husband. Her
beauty and charm of manner soon won the affection
of the Scots, who spent a week in wild revelry and
entertainment to celebrate the event. The wedding
took place in the Abbey with great solemnity and
was witnessed by a numerous gathering of princes,
prelates and noblemen amid universal joy.
But the Earl of Douglas, jealous of the influence
Crichton had already acquired with the Queen, pro-

H 57

The S tory of Edinburgh Castle

ceeded to revenge his private quarrel, and so violent
were the disturbances that ensued that in the beginning
of the following year a Parliament was assembled at
the Castle to put an end to them.
On Shrove Tuesday, 1452, James invited Douglas
to dine at Stirling Castle. After the feast James led
his guest into an inner room, where there were only
a few privy councillors, and urged him most earnestly
to return to his allegiance, assuring him of his pardon
and favour if he would do so. The Earl replied with
a haughty refusal ; whereupon James lost all control
of his temper, drew his dagger and stabbed Douglas,
exclaiming, "By Heaven, if you will not break the
league this shall ! ' The councillors followed the royal
example by stabbing the dying man with their knives
and daggers, and the dead body was cast out into an
open court and buried on the spot.
In the twenty-fourth year of his reign James was
killed at the siege of Roxburgh Castle from the
bursting of a cannon of Flemish manufacture, and
Scotland was once more exposed to the confusions of
a long minority.

CHAPTER V : The Blackest T>ay

CHAPTER V : The Blackest T>ay
for Scotland

JAMES III was only seven years old when he
succeeded his father in 1460, and no time was
lost in arranging his coronation at Kelso Abbey,
near to Roxburgh, whither his grief-stricken mother
had hastened to make a chivalrous appeal to the
troops besieging the castle. As usual there was a
difficulty in arranging the regency. This nearly
terminated in bloodshed, as the Queen's claim did not
receive the support of the Barons, who refused to
submit to the sway of a woman. The matter, how-
ever, was eventually settled by appointing the Bishop
of St. Andrews as joint guardian, and investing the
Earl of Angus with supreme military power as
Lieutenant-General of the kingdom, and the new reign
commenced with great promise. But unfortunately
the old Earl died not long after, which was a great
loss to Scotland. The Queen-Mother, too, died
suddenly, so that a great responsibility now rested on
the Bishop, who continued to carry out the pacific
policy for which he had constantly striven.
In due time James approached a marriageable age and
an advantageous matrimonial alliance was formed with
Margaret, daughter of the King of Denmark and
Norway, who was known as " little Margaret, the
maiden of Norway."

The alliance was further rendered acceptable to the
nation in that the royal bridegroom "gatt with the

61

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

King of Denmarkes dochter, in tocher guid, the
landis of Orkney and Zetland," and in the month of
July 1469, the future Queen landed at Leith in the
presence of an immense crowd and amid general
rejoicings of the people.

According to Abercrombye, "the very sight of such a
Queen could not but endear her to all ranks of people,
who, to congratulate her happy arrival, and to create
in her a good opinion of themselves and the country,
entertained her and her princely train for many days
with delicious and costly feasts."

But these festivities, at the Castle and elsewhere, gave
place to events of a quite different character, and the
young King did not foresee the troubles that awaited
him. James evidently had no conception of his
duties and responsibilities as monarch, sacrificing the
interests of his kingdom to his tastes for the fine arts.
He did not have the slightest interest in the stirring
exercises of the chase or the tilting-yard, nor in his
duties of the cabinet or council-room. He spent his
time in the society of ignoble favourites who speedily
acquired an influence in the realm to which they had
no title by hereditary rank, and as little claim on the
ground of personal merit. Cochrane, an architect;
Rogers, a musician; Torphichen, a fencing master;
Andrews, an astrologer; Hommil, a tailor; and
Leonard, a smith, were the principal persons on whom
he bestowed such an injudicious and dangerous
preference.

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

The nobility could not but feel the slight thus put
upon them: alienated from their sovereign, they
attached themselves to his brothers, the Duke of
Albany and the Earl of Mar, who were distinguished
by their skill in military exercises, their open-handed
generosity, and the splendid array of friends and
retainers with which they surrounded themselves.
Hence arose jealousies and contentions between the
young monarch and his brothers, which resulted in
the Duke of Albany being imprisoned in the Castle
on a charge of conspiracy, and his other brother, the
Earl of Mar, being shut up in Craigmillar Castle,
without the slightest evidence that they had enter-
tained disloyal designs.

Albany effected his escape in 1478 by one of the
most startling adventures recorded in the history of
the Castle. The young Duke was on friendly terms
with the court of Burgundy, and his friends there,
learning of his imprisonment, sent by a trading vessel
two casks of Malmsey, which were admitted to the
Duke's chamber without examination. On their being

o

opened Albany found a coil of rope and a paper, of
instructions enclosed in a cake of wax, explaining a
plan of escape and informing him that his enemies
had resolved to put him to death. Without hesita-
tion the Duke invited the captain of the guard and
his three soldiers to sup with him, and with the
assistance of his chalmer-chield (attendant) he soon
succeeded in reducing the party to a state of intoxica-

63

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

tion, after which the men were easily overpowered and
slain. With the assistance of his attendant the Duke
threw the bodies encased in their armour on to the
blazing fire which burnt in the great open fireplace of
the chamber, and stealing out in the darkness the
fugitives made their way to a part of the outer wall
and prepared for their descent. The attendant claimed
the first trial, and as the rope proved to be too short,
he dropped to the ground and broke his leg. Albany
at once rushed back to his sleeping apartment in the
Tower, took the sheets from his bed, knotted them
together to the end of the rope, and effected his escape
in safety down the rock. Staying only to convey his
disabled attendant to a friendly shelter, he hastened
to the shore and was taken on board the waiting vessel
that speedily conveyed him to France, where he was
hospitably received by the court of Louis XI.
A different fate befell the Earl of Mar. There is
some uncertainty surrounding the closing scene in his
brief career, as he was not brought to a public trial.
It has been said that he was taken to a house in the
Canongate where, in a hot bath, he was bled to
death ; but another story says that he died from
fever after a process of bleeding prescribed by his
physicians.

Whilst James with an army of fifty thousand men
was on his way toward the border in 1 48 1 to encounter
Richard Duke of Gloucester, the angry Scottish

barons felt that the time had come to assert their

64

THE ESCAPE OF THE DUKE OF ALBANY

MONRO S. ORR
Page 64

'ke

.,. the

LTCJ! ;>lace of

.,»? in the d.irkness the

/*f the outer wall

Attendant claimed

to be too short,

his leg. Albany

.purtment in the

Y//.H.I/ •'(> HXTJU >THT ''To 3<iAD23j£ifcnotted them

, ffrcted his escape
•\ to convey his
I T, he hastened
> j \\-aiting vessel
•?ice, -A here he was
,* i X i

r Sj.ir. There is
;\o scene in his
io ,i public trial.
,i house in the
..^h, he was bled to
chat he died fr6m
...iiin«4 prescribed by his

'•housand men

% > V.': • :•

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

power. They were in a better position when in camp
to cope successfully with the royal authority, and they
seized the favourites and hung them without trial over
the parapet of Lauder Bridge. Plans were discussed
for the seizure of the King, but there was some
hesitation, as the plot was certainly attended with
considerable danger. While the mode of proceeding
was being considered, Lord Gray quoted the fable of
the mice and the cat, whereupon Angus, the head of
the new house of Douglas, with characteristic boldness
exclaimed " I shall bell the cat, " an expression which
gained for him the appellation of Archibald Bell-the-
Cat.

The unhappy monarch was seized and carried back to
Edinburgh, where he was kept a close prisoner within the
Castle. The Castle once again was, as it were, a prison
and palace combined. James was kept more or less a
close prisoner in the custody of the Earls of Athol
and Buchan ; he was attended with all the honour due
to him as a prince, but no one was allowed to speak to
him except in the company of his custodian ; his door
was locked before the setting of the sun and opened
long after sunrise. During his own close confine-
ment James' own prisoner, James the ninth and last
Earl of Douglas, lay close by in one of the dungeons.
James III did not die in the Castle, but like most of
the princes of his unfortunate royal house, perished by
the dagger of his own rebellious nobles on June 8,
1488, after his retreat from the battle of Sauchieburn,

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

close to Bannockburn, and was buried in the Abbey
of Cambus Kenneth.

On the day after the battle the Earls of Angus and
Argyle, with the Lords Hailes and Home and the
Bishop of Glasgow, repaired to the Castle of Edin-
burgh and secured and took an inventory of the
jewels, plate, and apparel which belonged to the late
King. He left behind him a wonderful collection of
gems and jewels in his famous black kist, believed to
be the one in which the Regalia were kept, and which
is still preserved in the Crown Room. In the " inven-
tory ' are mentioned five relics of Bruce, " King
Robert's Serk' and four silver goblets, and other
gold and silver plate.

With the advent of James the Fourth commences one
of the brightest periods in Scottish national history.
The Prince proceeded immediately to Scone- -some
historians say Edinburgh — where he was crowned with
the usual ceremonies. The Government of the new
monarch was then organized, and his confederates in
the rebellion which had raised him to the throne were
rewarded by their appointment to offices of influence
and trust.

James was now in the seventeenth year of his age, and
his love of gorgeous pageantry and show was pandered
to by his councillors. He was constantly attended
not only by his huntsmen and falconers, but by his
jester, ' English John,' and his youthful mistress, Lady
Margaret Drummond, daughter of Lord Drummond,

66

"The Story of Edinburgh Castle

to whom he seems to have been attached at an early

period, and frequent notices appear in the Treasurer's

book of the sums paid to " dansaris, gysaris, and

players ' ' who were employed to amuse the youthful

lovers.

The Castle became famed throughout Europe for the

scenes of knightly feats beneath its walls.

*And of his court through Europe sprang the fame
Of lusty lords and love some ladies y ing,
'Triumphand tourneys, justing and knightly game
With all pastime according to ane Ring-
He was the gloir of princely governing !

On a green lawn close to the King's stables James
arranged great tournaments, where his nobles and
barons assembled by royal proclamation for jousting.
Meeds of honour such as a gold-headed spear and
similar favours were presented to the victor from the
royal hand or from those of the fair beauties for which
the Scottish Court was famed. Knights came from
all countries to take part in the tourneys, " but few or
none of thame passed away unmatched, and oftymes
overthrowne."

One noteworthy meeting which the King and his train
witnessed in great splendour from the walls of the
Castle took place in 1503, when a Dutch knight, Sir
John Cockbeuis, challenged a Sir Patrick Hamilton,
said to have been the bravest knight in Scotland, to

a great combat. The knights, clad in full armour,

67

"The Story of Edinburgh Castle

with their blazoned shields hung on their shoulders,
appeared mounted on magnificent horses, and at the
sound of the heralds' trumpets plunged at each other.
Both lances were splintered, and the champions re-
turned for another charge ; but the Scottish knight's
horse failed him and the encounter was continued on
foot, the knights fighting with their great swords.
After an hour, during which the contest continued
with great spirit, the Dutchman was struck to the
ground with a mighty blow from the two-handed

sword of Hamilton, when the Kino- threw down his

. ^

bonnet over the Castle wall as a sign for the combat
to cease, and amidst the sound of the trumpets the
Scottish knight was proclaimed the victor.
The capital during this reign became the favourite
residence of famous men of art and letters. The
Provost of St. Giles, Gavin Douglas, who became
ultimately the Bishop of Dunkeld, translated Virgil's
j^Eneid into Scottish verse, and dedicated his poem to
the "Maist gracious Prince ouir Souerain James the
Feird, Supreme honour renoun of cheualrie." James
took an immense interest in his armaments, testing
them almost daily, keeping them in repair against the
day of invasion. His master gunner Borthwick had
orders for casting a set of brass cannon for the Castle
which were christened c The Sisters ' on account of
their beautiful design ; the master gunner also cast
within the Castle the bells which still hang in the
belfry of St. Magnus Cathedral at Kirkwall in Orkney.

68

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

Before the marriage of James the Court was the scene
of a domestic tragedy. Lady Margaret Drummond,
his mistress, had been poisoned along with her two
sisters by the jealous Scottish nobles. It is said that
James intended to marry her without consulting his
Council, as he much loved the fair Margaret ; but as
they were connected by blood a dispensation was
required from Rome. The dispensation arrived from
the Pope too late ; the ill-fated lady had already been
cruelly poisoned.

By this deed all impediments to the completion of his
marriage with the Princess Margaret of England were
removed, and on July i'6, 1503, Margaret, who had
attained the mature age of fourteen years, made her
public entrance into Edinburgh amidst national re-
joicings. The King met his fair bride on her near
approach to the city, and dismounting from his horse,
he fondly kissed her as she reclined in her litter. He
then mounted on her palfrey, and taking up Mar-
garet behind him they rode to the city and were met
at the gate by Grey Friars bearing sacred relics which
were handed to the royal pair to kiss.
Within the gates the church bells pealed and the
houses were gaily decorated, the windows being hung
with tapestry. Next day the King and his bride were
married with great pomp by the Archbishop of Glas-
gow, " amid the sound of trumpets and the acclama-
tion of the noble company." At the dinner which fol-
lowed in the Banqueting Hall of the Castle the Queen

69

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

was served at the first course with " a wyld borres hed
gylt within a fayr platter." The people showed their
rejoicing by bonfires, while dancing and feasting and
the sports of the age were continued for many days,
" and that done every man went his way."
We must pass from these great rejoicings to follow
the history of the Castle, wherein we find James
preparing for his departure, against all warnings and
good counsels of his Queen, to the lamented field of
Flodden. He had the seven great cannon out of the
Castle called 'The Sisters,' along with the necessary
powder and shot.

The Queen had given birth to two sons, both of
whom had died, and a third son and heir had been
born at Linlithgow ; but neither this event nor the
entreaties of the Queen- -who prayed for him to
remain in Scotland — could turn James from his fatal
purpose. At the head of his great army, the flower
of Scottish chivalry, the gallant monarch marched
across the border to the bloody field of Flodden.
The great disaster of September 9, 1513, which
deprived Scotland not only of her King, but also of
so many Scottish fathers, sons and brothers, that in-
numerable homes throughout the border districts were
left without a man, made Edinburgh a city of wailing.
It was "the blackest day for Scotland that she ever
knew before," and the wailing of her people has been
echoed down the centuries.

Professor Aytoun, in his Edinburgh after Flodden,

7o

THE PALACE, OR ROYAL LODGING

Page 70

teir

•*' -4 and

days,

joieings to follow

sn we find James

-am ings and

rented field of

on out of the

)/f.)fIO.I I/ VOX HO ,.i3/UA'I .Tin

necessary

both of
ad been
nor the

rn his
the fl

ower

^i Flodden.
' S i 3 , which
_:., but also of
Kurs, that in-
.listricts were
of wailing.
fhat she e^
iias been

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

expresses the sorrow which the people felt on the
death of their beloved King.

Woe, and Woe, and lamentation, what a piteous

cry was there,
Widows, maidens, mothers, children, shrieking,

sobbing in despair.
'Through the streets the death-word rushes,

spreading terror, sweeping on,
"Jesus Christ, our King has fallen — oh great

God- King "James has gone.

c/ ' O «-/ O

Oh the blackest day for Scotland that she e^er

knew before
Oh our King, the good, the noble, shall we ne^er

see him more ?
Woe to us and woe to Scotland, oh our sons, our

sons, and men,
Surely some have ^ scaped the Southron, surely some

will come again ? '
7/7/ the oak that fell last winter shall uprear

its withered stem,
Wives and mothers of Dunedin you may look in

vain for them.

The body of James was found by Lord Dacre
amongst the thickest of the slain : "his neck was
opened in the middle with a wide wound -, his left
hand, almost cut off in two places, did scarce hang
to his arm, and the archers had shot him in many
places of his body." Thus perished, in his forty-

71

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

second year, one of the most popular monarchs that
ever resided in the Castle of Edinburgh.
Luckily for Scotland Henry VIII was too much
engaged with the French to reap the fruits of his
victory at Flodden. However, Edinburgh prepared
itself for eventualities. The magistrates issued a
proclamation to the effect that all men must be in
readiness to assemble at the "jowing™ of the town
bell, wearing what accoutrements they possessed, and
carrying their weapons to defend the town. This is
the origin of the famous "auld toun Guard." The
proclamation likewise warned women not to be seen
in the streets, clamouring and crying, but rather to
go to the kirk and offer up prayers. Twenty-four
men were appointed as the town guard, and five hun-
dred pounds Scots was ordered to be levied for the
purchase of artillery and also to fortify the town.
The old wall erected in the reign of James II. had
already proved to be too confined for the rising capital,
and now with the fear of invasion the aristocratic
suburb of the Cowgate, which was beyond the wall,
became keenly alive to its exposed position. No
time was lost in supplying the needful defences ; every
person available assisted in the work, farmers lent
their labourers and horses to the national work, and
in a very short space of time this southern part of
the city was surrounded by the new wall, called
Flodden Wall, with its battlements and towers. Con-
siderable portions of this wall still remain in good
72

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

preservation ; at the vennel one may see a battlement
portion, also adjoining the museum at College Street,
and again at the Pleasance there is a small stretch.
As the greater part of the nobles had perished with
their sovereign, the National Council was principally
composed of clergy. The infant King, then only
eighteen months old, was crowned at Scone. The
Castle of Stirling was selected as his residence, and
the Queen-Mother was appointed Regent of the
kingdom and guardian of her son, in accordance
with the will of the late King.

The Archbishop of Glasgow and the Earls of Huntly
and Angus were selected to be the councillors of
Margaret, and the government of Stirling Castle was
entrusted to Lord Borthwick. The appointment of
a female to hold the reins of government was contrary
to the customary law of Scotland, and was far from
popular among the Scottish nobles ; moreover, the
near connection of the Queen-Mother with the English
monarch excited a suspicion that she might be unduly
swayed by his influence. A secret message was
despatched to France inviting the Duke of Albany,
who after the youthful monarch was next heir to
the throne, to repair to Scotland and assume the
office of Regent.

For some time after the death of the King, the
Queen-Mother seems to have discharged the duties
of her office to the satisfaction of the nobles and the
people, but the defects in her character soon became

K 73

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

apparent. On April 30, 1514, about eight months
after Flodden, she gave birth to a son, who was named
Alexander, and created Duke of Ross. Scarcely had
the Queen recovered from her confinement, however,
when, to the surprise and regret of all her friends, she
hastily married the young Earl of Angus, without any
previous consultation with her Council. This had
the effect of lowering her reputation in the eyes of
the nation.

Angus was the grandson and successor of the
celebrated Archibald Bell-the-Cat, and was therefore
at the head of the powerful house of Douglas.
By the terms of the royal will the marriage at once
put an end to Margaret's regency, and the Council
lost no time in deposing her from the office.
On May 1 8 the Duke of Albany arrived from France
to take over the regency, landing at Dumbarton with
a squadron of eight ships, and was eagerly welcomed
by a large concourse of the nobles and gentry of the
western counties. The citizens testified their joy on
his arrival at Edinburgh by acting "sundry farces and
gude plays," and the Queen came from the Castle to
the gate at Holy rood to meet him and do him all
possible honour. At a meeting of Parliament held in
July 1515 he was solemnly installed in the office of
Regent till the young King should reach the age of
eighteen. The royal children still remained in the
keeping of their mother, and it became an object of
great importance to withdraw them from this dangerous

74

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

situation. The new Regent accordingly summoned a
Parliament, which met at Edinburgh and nominated
eight lords, out of which four were to be chosen by
lot, and from these the Queen-Mother was to select
three to have charge of the King and his brother.
This arrangement having been agreed to, the four
peers proceeded from the Parliament house to the
Castle, for the purpose of carrying into effect the
commands of Parliament. Attended by a great con-
course of people, who crowded to witness the imposing
scene, they approached the gates of the fortress, which
were thrown open, and Margaret the Queen-Mother
was seen standing under the archway of the Portcullis
Gate with the little King nestling by her side with his
hand held fast in hers, whilst in the background a
lady stood holding in her arms the infant Duke of
Ross. As soon as the cheers with which the people
greeted this royal tableau had subsided, the Queen
with great dignity and a loud clear voice demanded
the reason of the delegates coming ; they replied that
they came in the name of Parliament to receive from
her the King and his brother, whereupon Margaret
commanded the warder to drop the portcullis. The
great massive iron trellis instantly descended, and,
according to Dr. Taylor, she thus addressed the dele-
gates through the grille : " This Castle is part of my
enfeoffment, and of it, by my late husband the King,
was I made governor, nor to any mortal shall I yield
the important trust. But I respect the Parliament

75

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

and nation, and request six days to consider the
mandate, for most important is my charge and my
counsellors now, alas, are few ! ' As the last words
fell from her lips she burst into tears.
The Queen, however, found it impossible to hold the
Castle against the forces of Parliament, and suddenly
moved with her children to Stirling, her usual place
of residence, where her adherents were numerous.
She then sent to the Regent an offer to maintain the
Princes out of her own dowry, provided they were
left under her charge.

Indignant at this evasion of the orders of Parliament,
Albany determined to compel obedience, and ordered
Lords Ruthven and Borthwick to blockade the
Castle of Stirling. A proclamation was now issued,
threatening the penalties of treason against all those
who should continue to hold out the Castle of Stirling
against the Regent and Parliament ; and Albany, at
the head of seven thousand men and accompanied
by almost all the peers, marched against that fortress.
The Queen's resistance was hopeless, and advancing
to meet the Regent she delivered the keys of the
Castle to the young King, who, by her directions,
placed them in the hands of Albany.
The Regent left a guard of seven hundred soldiers,
and committed the two Princes to the custody of the
Earl Marischal ; whilst the Queen returned to Edin-
burgh, where she took up her residence in the Castle.

Margaret finding herself, as she alleged, in a kind of

76

THE QUEEN-MOTHER, MARGARET TUDOR,

RECEIVES THE REPRESENTATIVE PEERS

AT THE PORTCULLIS GATE

MONRO S. ORR
Page 76

•he

r»y
ist words

«Ktbie to hold the

nt, and suddenly

, her usual place

were numerous.

to maintain the

v ided they were

M.TJO 3HT

»\ I

>i0'! 1Hc, and ordered

-l/"lA blockade the

\v issued,
all those
Castle of Stirling
and Albany, at
i;ui a ceo iTi pan led
,nst that fortress.
.-, and advancing

i he kevs of the

j

hv her directions,

hundred soldiers,
i he custody of the
i turned to Edin-
m the C

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

captivity at Edinburgh, and her revenues retained by
the Regent, determined to retire to Blacater, in close
proximity to England while at the same time it was
within the Scottish frontier, so she could not be said
to have forfeited her rights by leaving the country.
This imprudent step completely alienated the nobles
and clergy from the cause of the Queen, and induced
them to give their full support to the government of
the Regent.

Albany tried in vain to avoid hostilities, and offered
Margaret complete restoration of all her rights and
revenues if she would return to Edinburgh Castle.
The imprudent Queen-Mother refused the liberal
terms, and Albany immediately advanced to the
Border at the head of an army of forty thousand men,
and razed the tower of Blacater to the ground. In
the meantime the Queen fled to England along with
Angus and Home, after finding it impossible to offer
any effectual resistance. The Regent was still anxious
to reclaim the Queen from the impolitic course
which she was pursuing, and addressed a letter to
her imploring her to listen to reason, but without
success.

Eight days after her flight into England she gave
birth to a daughter, the Lady Margaret Douglas, who
eventually became the mother of Darnley and grand-
mother of James VI ; and a few days after she re-
ceived the news of the death of her younger son,
Alexander, at Stirling, an event which the Queen and

77

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

her faction did not hesitate to ascribe either to neglect
or poison.

Albany now resolved to visit France in order to
obtain assistance from the French court to enable
him to resist the intrigues of England, and to main-
tain the independence of the Kingdom. His absence
was arranged to extend only to four months, and on
June 7, 1517, he sailed from Dumbarton. Before
leaving, the young King was brought from Stirling
and placed in the Castle of Edinburgh under the
care of the Earl Marischal and Lords Erskine, Borth-
wick, and Ruthven. It was also settled that the
Queen- Mother should be allowed to return to Scot-
land, and to resume possession of her dowry and all
her effects, upon condition that she should abstain
from all attempts to overthrow the authority of the
Regent. As soon as she heard of Albany's departure
she commenced her journey northward, and on her
arrival in Edinburgh she was not permitted at first to
visit her son ; but the young monarch was removed
to Craigmillar Castle on there being an apprehension
that the plague had made its appearance in the capital,
and there his mother was occasionally allowed to visit
him.

Margaret's propensity to engage in intrigues seems
to have been incurable, and a suspicion arose that she
was meditating a plan to carry off the young King to
England, whereupon his guardians at once restored him

to his original residence in the Castle of Edinburgh.

78

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

Angus having failed in his attempt to obtain the
regency, quarrelled with his wife and retired from the
Court. He secluded himself in the Douglas country
with his mistress, the daughter of Stuart of Traquair,
to whom he is said to have been betrothed previous
to his marriage with the Queen.
Margaret broke into a violent rage at this new insult,
and expressed her determination to sue for a divorce ;
but through a friar named Chats worth, sent by Henry
from England, a temporary reconciliation took place
between her and Angus.

Meanwhile the ambition of Angus continued to
annoy the Government and to disturb the peace of
the nation, and the Regent on his return from France
summoned a Parliament to meet at Edinburgh on
December 26, 1522, and cited Angus and his prin-
cipal followers to appear and answer to the charges to
be brought against them. But, conscious of their
guilt, they were compelled to fly to the borders, where
they opened a negotiation with Henry through the
Bishop of Dunkeld, a nephew of Angus. They
brought charges against Albany of having murdered
the young Duke of Ross at Stirling ; they alleged
that the Regent had designs upon the Crown, that
Margaret intended to set aside her son to marry
Albany and raise him to the throne, to accomplish
which they had attempted to induce Angus to consent
to a divorce; also that the life of the young King
was in danger.

79

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

The Queen-Mother was speedily made acquainted
with the charges which had been brought against
her, and she immediately dispatched an envoy to her
brother, flatly contradicting them. But Henry had
no desire for peace, and openly accused his sister
of living in shameful adultery with the Regent.
Angus, who had remained inactive on the borders,
became desirous of removing to some other country
to mature his plans and await a favourable oppor-
tunity for their execution. He prevailed on his wife
to intercede with Albany for this end, and he was
permitted to return to Edinburgh, from which he
passed immediately into France- -the Regent con-
senting, on his voluntary exile, to remit the sentence
for treason which had previously been pronounced.
Albany convened a Parliament at Edinburgh, and a
formal declaration of war against England was agreed
upon ; and the young King, now in his eleventh
year, was removed to Stirling and placed under the
sole charge of Lord Erskine. Albany was, however,
anxious for peace with honour, which was speedily
arranged with Henry, who professed to be anxious
only that his nephew should be placed under proper
guardians, while he insisted no longer on the depar-
ture of Albany from Scotland. Albany consenting
to a two months' truce disbanded his army and returned
to Edinburgh.
The Queen-Mother now began a correspondence

with the English nobles, to whom she revealed the

80

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

whole policy of the Regent. Albany was now placed
in a terribly complicated position. He was anxious
to remain at peace, but Henry brought the negotia-
tions for the continuance of a truce to an abrupt
termination ; and as many of the nobles were in the
pay of England, Albany found it difficult to find any-
one to whom he could give his confidence, or whom
he could entrust with the carrying out of his designs.
Harassed and disheartened by the difficulties of his
situation, the Regent resolved once more to repair to
France, for the purpose of holding a conference with
Francis I on the best method of overcoming the
English faction. Meanwhile the Queen-Mother was
busily engaged in carrying on her intrigues to advance
her own interests at the expense of the welfare of the
country, and a plot was hatched between her and the
English court to put an end to the regency of Albany
by allowing the young King to assume the reins of
government, with the expectation that the manage-
ment of affairs would fall into her own hands. Her
schemes, however, were disconcerted by the unexpected
return of Albany, who determined to make a final
effort to maintain the independence of the kingdom.
He mustered an army of forty thousand men on the
Borough Muir, within sight of Edinburgh Castle, and
began his march on England, which was slow owing
to the state of the roads, along which the heavy
artillery was dragged with great labour. But Albany
soon found himself in difficulties, for his army and its

81

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

leaders broke out into insubordination and they
openly refused to proceed farther on reaching Melrose.
Disgusted and mortified by these proceedings, and
finding that the nobles were faithless, Albany requested
permission to retire to France under the pretext of
making further arrangements with Francis ; his request
was complied with, and in July 1 5 24 he left Scotland
never to return.

Margaret now succeeded in persuading the Earl of
Arran, whose royal descent and large possessions made
him a formidable rival, to unite his interests to hers j
and on July 2 5 she suddenly left Stirling with her son,
and entering the capital, showed him to the towns-
people as their legitimate sovereign, now about to
administer in his own name the affairs of his dis-
ordered kingdom. James had not yet reached his
thirteenth year, but his educational accomplishments
were much in advance of his age.
Accordingly he was welcomed to Edinburgh with
great enthusiasm ; through admiring and cheering
crowds he passed with his mother and a procession of
nobility to his ancestral Palace of Holyrood, and there
was declared of age, announced his assumption of
the government, and received the homage of the peers
and prelates.

The Queen's rapid and independent action enraged
her brother and gave reason for distrust, which was
greatly strengthened by her refusal to sanction the
proposed return of her husband Angus. She had

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

now become enamoured with Henry Stewart, the
second son of Lord Evandale. This awakened
general dissatisfaction, and several of the barons
withdrew from her Court in consequence ; and even
Arran, her principal supporter, began to consult his
own interests in preference to her cause. Henry's
chaplain, Dr. Magnus, was directed to repair without
delay to her Court, and to endeavour to effect her
reconciliation with her husband j but her former
attachment to him had been replaced by so strong
an aversion, that no argument could induce her to
consent to his recall. Her opposition, however, did
not prevent the return of Angus to Scotland ; in the
beginning of November, after a two years' exile, he
crossed the border and took up his residence at Cold-
ingham Priory. He wrote to Margaret entreating
her to grant him a personal conference, professing his
readiness to make amends for any offences which he
had committed. No notice was taken of this com-
munication, not even in the Parliament which met in
the middle of the month.

Early on the morning of November 23, 1525, several
hours before sunrise, the citizens of Edinburgh were
roused from their slumbers by the sound of war in
their streets. The Earls of Angus and Lennox had
scaled the walls, opened the gates, and penetrated to
the Cross at the head of four or five hundred men.
They announced that they only sought to have the
King's person removed from the custody of those who

83

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

were compassing the injury of the state. The guns
of the Castle were directed against them, and the
Queen, who was at Holy rood, collected a force of
five hundred men and prepared to drive them out of
the city at the point of the sword, when Dr. Magnus
and others hastened to the palace to entreat her to
stop the cannonade from the Castle, as it was doing
much injury to the citizens. They found her in a
fury of temper ; she there and then ordered the
prelate home to his lodging, suspecting him to be a
party to the outrage, and issued a proclamation
demanding the immediate departure of Angus and
his adherents. This had the desired effect, they
withdrew in the direction of Dalkeith, and in the
dawn of the winter's morn the Queen had passed up
the High Street with her son, by torchlight, to the
Castle, and shut herself in the fortress to devise
measures for her security.

The Queen's retreat into the Castle separated her to
a great extent from the nobles who had still continued to
attend her councils. She now sent the Bishop of Dunkeld
and the Abbot of Cambuskenneth on an embassy to
her brother to remonstrate with him on account of
her husband's return, but this had little promise of any
satisfactory result.

The beginning of the year 1525 saw the influence of
the Queen-Mother declining more and more. Angus,
backed by an influential party, demanded the removal

of the King from the control of his mother, and the

84

THE CASTLE FROM THE VENNEL

Page 84

.ins

out of
Dr. Magnus
trn treat her to
> it was doing
und her in a
ordered the
him to be a
proclamation

Hit .

r Angus and
• effect, they

*

h, and in the
had passed up
Jiiii>ht, to the
rcss to devise

paratcd her to
tili continued to
hopof Dunkeld
vin cmhassy to
on account of
promise of any

he intiuence of
ore. Angi

vi«Mi

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

appointment of a new Council of Regency by the
Parliament. Margaret could not venture beyond the
walls of the Castle ; the possession of the fortress and
her hold on the young King were the only elements
of strength that remained to her, but her spirit was
not yet broken and she still maintained a high tone of
independence.

As a last resource she determined to try an appeal
to arms, and entreated the barons who still lingered
around her to take the field on her behalf. To this,
however, they would not consent unless the young
King accompanied them — a condition, of course, to
which Margaret dared not agree, fearing to lose the
custody of her son. Accordingly she was at last
compelled to yield. Under the auspices of Dr.
Magnus negotiations were opened, and it was mutually
agreed that James should be removed to the palace at
Holyrood and placed under the guardianship of a
Council elected by Parliament and presided over by
the Queen ; it was also stipulated that Angus should
renounce his marital rights over her person and
property.

It was with great repugnance that the Queen subscribed
this contract, for she now saw that this was a virtual
surrender of all for which she had so long struggled.
Her influence was now at an end, and the disgraceful
secret marriage in the following year with her para-
mour Henry Stewart completed the ruin of her power.
James' early education had been entrusted to the care

85

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

of Sir David Lyndsay, who instructed him in the
knowledge of all liberal and manly accomplishments.
Sir David was appointed gentleman usher to the royal
infant on the day of his birth, and was for many years
his constant companion and playmate. Sir David
Lyndsay recalls to his sovereign's recollection the
amusements with which he had entertained his
infancy in the two following verses :

When thou wast young I bore thee in my arm
Full tenderly till thou begouth to gang ;
And in thy bed oft happed thee full warm,
With lute in hand, syne sweetly to thee sang;
Sometimes in dancing ferclie I flang,
And sometimes played farces on the floor,
And sometimes on mine office did take care.

+JLJ

And sometimes like ane fend transfgurate,
And sometimes hke the grisly ghost of Guy y
In divers forms oft-times disfigurate,
And sometimes dissuaged full pleasantly $
So since thy birth I have continually
Been occupied, and aye to thy pleasure.

Under the pretence of providing for the security of
the King's person, the Queen surrounded him with a
guard of two hundred men-at-arms, who were for the
most part younger sons of noblemen. The long-
pending decree of divorce between Margaret and Angus
was pronounced by the Chancellor, in his Consistorial
Court of St. Andrews in 1525, and in the same year

86

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

a similar decision was delivered by the Pope, upon
which Margaret publicly acknowledged Henry Stewart
as her husband. The Lords of the Council, incensed
at this presumption on the part of Stewart who had
not asked consent of the King, committed him to
prison for a short time. In the month of April 1525
the King completed his fourteenth year, when by the
law of Scotland his minority terminated and he was
permitted the full exercise of his authority.
James now proceeded to act with great promptitude
and vigour against those who had so long held him
in bondage. He issued a proclamation forbidding
Angus or any of his adherents to approach within
six miles of his Court, under pain of penalties for
treason.

In 1536 James journeyed to France and there married
Magdalene, the beautiful daughter of Francis. Mag-
dalene is said to have fallen in love with the Scottish
monarch at first sight ; she was extremely delicate, and
her physicians assured him " that she was not strong
enough to travel to a colder climate than her own, and
that if she did her days would not be long.'; The
youthful lovers, however, turned a deaf ear to the
advice, and their nuptials were solemnized with great
splendour on January i, 1537, in the Cathedral of
Notre Dame. After a stormy passage they arrived
at Leith on May 19, and were received with rejoicings
by a great crowd, who came to welcome their sovereign
home and to see their new Queen. As soon as they

87

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

landed Magdalene knelt down and kissed the ground
and returned thanks to God for a safe journey and
prayed for the happiness of her new country, an
incident which seems to have endeared her to the
affections of the Scottish people. Alas ! within the
short period of six weeks she died, to the inexpressible
grief of her husband and the whole nation, before she
had completed her seventeenth year. She was buried
with great pomp in the royal vault in the Abbey of
Holyrood, near James II, and her epitaph was
composed in Latin verse by the celebrated George
Buchanan. This was the first recorded instance of
mourning dresses being worn by the Scots.
James was not long a widower } within a few months
after the death of his youthful Queen, he opened
negotiations with Mary, a princess of the house of
Guise } arrangements were speedily concluded and
in June 1538 Mary landed at Balcornie in Fife and
the marriage was celebrated at St. Andrews.
Edinburgh and its Castle now became the scene of
tragic occurrences that disturbed the peace of mind of
the young monarch for a time. In June 1536 the
Master of Forbes, who had married a sister of the
Earl of Angus, was accused of a design to assassinate
the King, and he and his father, Lord Forbes, were
imprisoned upon these charges, but their trial did not
take place till fourteen months after. The father was
acquitted, but the son was found guilty, condemned,
and executed on the same day. The young noble

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

was beheaded and quartered outside the gates, his
remains being hung on the principal portals of the
city.

The next victim was Lady Glammis, a blood relation
of the hated Douglases, who with her husband, her
son, then only sixteen years of age, a priest, and a
barber named John Lyon, was accused of conspiring
to bring about the King's death by poison. The un-
fortunate woman was found guilty and was condemned
to be burned at the stake on the Castle Hill. The
sentence was carried out in sight of her husband and
in the presence of a crowd of spectators, who were
deeply moved by her noble birth, her great beauty,
and the courage with which she endured her cruel

o

punishment.

Her son was also found guilty, but his life was spared
out of compassion for his youth, and he was con-
demned to imprisonment for life, but was released on
the death of James. The husband, in attempting to
escape from the Castle, was dashed to pieces on the
rocks. Alexander Mackay, who had sold the poison
knowing for what purpose it was bought, had both
his ears cut off and was banished from all parts of
Scotland except the county of Aberdeen.
On May 2,2,, 1540, the Queen gave birth to a prince
who was named after his father ; in the month of
April 1541 another son was born, who died almost
immediately, and nearly at the same moment his elder
brother, the heir to the throne, died at St. Andrews.

M

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

Pitscottie says that " the death of the two Princes
caused great lamentations to be made in Scotland,
but especially by the Queen their mother. The
Queen comforted the King, saying they were young
enough, and God would raise them more succession."
The Princes were buried on the same day in the royal
vault at Holy rood.

Shortly after the death of the Princes the Queen-
Dowager closed her turbulent life at Methven Castle
at the age of fifty-two, and was buried in the tomb of
James I in the church of the Carthusians at Perth.
James felt keenly the death of his two children, who
were taken from him with such suddenness, and sought
consolation in interesting himself in useful enterprises
such as the improvement in the breed of horses
in his own country. French and Flemish armourers
were brought over to increase the efficiency of his
military resources, and craftsmen skilled in ornament
were attracted from the Continent by the promise of
his patronage. But James, in his endeavours to
improve the conditions of his country, had not the
support of his nobility, who were hostile to him.
This was made apparent when James had collected
his army at the Burgh Muir of Edinburgh preparatory
to taking the field against his uncle, Henry of England,
in 1542. They got the length of Fala, on the edge
of the Lammermuir Hills, when the nobles persisted in
their refusal to proceed farther. Some historians

say that the barons manifested a disposition to renew

9o

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

the tragic scenes of Lauder Bridge by hanging the
confidential advisers of the King, but that a difference
of opinion among the leaders regarding the selection
of their victims prevented them from carrying out
their designs. James, after being defeated by the
English at Solway Moss, flew into a furious passion
on hearing the news, which was brought to him at
Lochmaben, where he had remained. His mind
already overstrained by anxiety and disappointments,
he sunk under the blow and fell into a state of
melancholy. He returned next day to Edinburgh,
and afterward proceeded to Falkland Palace in Fife,
where he shut himself up, brooding over his disgrace,
and refused to see anyone. A slow fever preyed
upon him, and being without food for many days he
gradually died, on December 13, 1542, at the age of
thirty-one.

The Queen was at Linlithgow Palace, where she had
given birth to a daughter who became her father's
successor, and so we approach an eventful period of
history in which the old Castle once more figures
prominently, and the house of Stuart forfeited the
throne.

91

CHAPTER VI : The Power of the
Douglas

CHAPTER VI : The Tower of
the Douglas

JAMES hearing the news on his death-bed that
his Queen had given birth to a Princess at
Linlithgow Palace, exclaimed : " It cam wi' a
lass, and it will gang wi' a lass." The infant was
seven days old when her father died, and one can
but pity the little Queen thus commencing her life
amidst well-nigh hopeless turbulence and disorder.
Despite the great difficulties of the situation, the
Queen- Mother, who took up her residence in the
Castle with the royal babe, handled the reins of the
regency with skill and judgment. Although herself
an ardent Catholic, by her liberal concessions she was
able at once to secure the full approbation of the
Protestant party.

Henry the Eighth in the hour of his death, embittered
with disappointment by the refusal of Scotland to
fulfil a treaty of marriage with the infant Queen and
young Edward, urged the councillors of the little
Prince to lose no time in waging war with Scotland.
In the beginning of September 1544 the Earl of
Hertford landed at Wardie at the head of an im-
mense army, and the Fiery Cross was instantly sent
through Scotland summoning all men spiritual or
temporal between the ages of sixty and sixteen to
repair to the city of Edinburgh.
The English earl demanded, as the condition of

95

The Story of Edinburgh Gas tie

peace, the hand of the little Queen for Edward,
subject to the stipulation that she should remain
within Scotland until she was of a fit age for marriage.
This, however, the Scottish nobles peremptorily re-
fused. Lord Huntly made the Earl an offer to decide
the quarrel by single combat, but this challenge was
declined, and the Earl immediately advanced toward
Edinburgh, where the English set fire to the town,
but were met with defeat when attempting to take
the Castle, which had been thoroughly repaired by
the Earl of Arran. For four days the English
thundered with their cannon before the fortress, not
only suffering heavy loss from the defenders, but
the Scots under Lord Stanehouse made a sortie
from the Castle and recaptured some of the guns
lost at Flodden. The English then retired, leaving
behind them the smouldering, blackened ruins of
Edinburgh and seven miles of country round the
city.

Three years later there was still another invasion ;
the Scots and English fought a decisive battle at
Pinkie on September 10, 1547, and the Scots were
defeated- -a day known long after as 'Black Saturday.'
So far from bringing about a union of the two coun-
tries, this had unfortunately the opposite result and
strengthened the old ties with France, toward which
the Queen-Regent turned her eyes for a marriage
between the young Queen and the Dauphin. It was

suggested that Mary should be sent across the channel

96

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

to be educated, and also for security against the
many dangers which threatened in her native country,
and this proposal received the full sanction of the
Scottish Parliament.

The death of Edward VI of England, which took
place in 1553, removed the possibility of further
troubles on account of an English matrimonial alliance.
The little Queen Mary was scarcely six years old
when, in the height of winter, she crossed the
Channel in 1548. The voyage was made in a sailing-
boat not much larger than a fishing-smack, and as she
sailed down the Clyde from Dumbarton she just
escaped the English fleet, which had already reached
the Forth on its mission to intercept her.
Mary of Guise continued her difficult task of ruling
Scotland amidst all the difficulties created by the
quarrelsome nobles on the one hand, and the re-
formers on the other. She managed to steer more

o

or less a neutral course between the parties until
her death, which, after a long illness, took place
on June 10, 1560, in an apartment of the royal
lodging, close to the present half-moon battery.
She had summoned to her death-bed a number
of her opponents with whom she spoke in terms
of kindness, urged them to be loyal and true to
the young Queen, and asked touchingly the forgive-
ness of any past disputes in which she might have
been in error. The rites of burial were refused her,
being a Catholic, and the body lay in the Castle

97

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

encased in lead for about four months, when it was
conveyed to Rheims, where it was received by her
sister, who was prioress of a convent.
Mary Stuart was now ruler of Scotland, but in her
absence the Protestant faith was established by Act
of Parliament, and on the news being intimated to her
she refused to recognize the procedure. She had
married Francis II, who died in the same year as her
mother, and she was now induced to return to her
native kingdom, after thirteen years' absence, to ascend
a throne and undertake the government of a people
who were hostile to her religion, which to her was
everything. Thus commenced a reign in which we
shall find much to pity, whether we deplore her actions
or blame others for their wily self-seeking. Destiny
had brought her forth into a world where she was in-
volved, young and inexperienced, in all the turmoil of
a reformation, in the intrigues of plotting traitors who
persuaded her with flatteries and unwise counsels ;
and in the end, on a preposterous charge of conspir-
ing to seize the English Crown, she was to be dastardly
put to death by the English Queen.
There was every chance that if this unfortunate
monarch, with her refinement of education, her
kindly disposition, and her great personal charm, had
lived in more peaceful and happier times she would
have left behind her a successful record.
Queen Mary arrived at Leith in August 1561, and
was indebted for her safe passage partly to a favour-

The Story of Rdinbur gh Castle

able wind and partly to a dense fog, under cover of
which she was able to avoid the English fleet. She
landed in circumstances which did not divert her from
the melancholy consequent upon her departure from
her beloved France, for the day was dull and gloomy.
Knox says that "in the memory of man, that day of
the year, was never seen a more dolorous face of the
heaven, than was at her arrival, which two days after
did so continue ; for besides the surface wet, and cor-
ruption of the air, the mist was so thick and so dark,
that scarce might any man espy another the length of
two pair of buttis — the sun was not seen to shine two
days before nor two days after."

Her arrival was at least ten days earlier than had been
anticipated, and few preparations had been made for
the reception ; but all classes hastened to express their
joy and to demonstrate their loyalty, "At the sound
of the cannons which the galleys shot, the multitude
being advertised, happy was he and she that first might
have the presence of the Queen." Accustomed to the
splendour of the French court, Mary was greatly
affected by the miserable arrangements which had
been made for her conveyance to the palace. As
there were no carriages in Scotland she was obliged
to proceed on a shaggy pony, the royal stud having
been captured by the English. Her eyes filled with
tears as she observed to her attendants : " These are
not like the appointments to which I have been
accustomed ; but it behoves me to arm myself with

99

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

patience." But her reception, though rude, was
sincere and cordial \ her youth and beauty at once
engaged the affections of a warm-hearted, generous
people, and her feelings of vexation gave way to
livelier emotions.

A few days later, Mary made her state progress
through Edinburgh to the Castle with great pomp, as is
chronicled in the Diurnal ofQccurrents. " Nothing was
neglected which could express the duty and affection
of the citizens towards their sovereign. Her High-
ness," continues the ancient record, " departed from
Holyrood with her train, and rode by the long street
on the north side of the burgh, till she came to the
foot of the Castle Hill, where a gate [more than likely
a triumphal arch] had been erected for her to pass
under, accompanied by the most part of the nobles of
Scotland. She then rode up the bank to the Castle,
where she sat down to the State banquet at noon.
On her return after the function, the artillery boomed
a royal salute from the batteries, and descending the
Castle Hill she was met by sixteen of the most honour-
able men of the town, clad in velvet gowns and
bonnets, who carried aloft a canopy of fine velvet
lined with red taffeta, fringed with gold and silk, under
which the Queen rode back to Holyrood.':
The next important event in the life of the Queen,
which however did not concern Edinburgh Castle,
was the marriage to her cousin, Lord Darnley, on
July 29, 1565, at Stirling Castle, an alliance which

IOO

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

unfortunately was to terminate so unhappily. We
next find her at the Castle after the return from
Haddington, whither she had fled with her friendly
nobles to escape the hand of the assassin at Holyrood,
and where, in the midst of her anxieties and griefs,
she had sought the security of the ancient fortress for
the safe delivery of the expected heir to the Crown.
Here she received a messenger who was sent by the
King and Queen-Mother of France with a congratula-
tory message on her escape from the recent peril. In
the train of the French ambassador came Joseph
Rizzio, whom Mary appointed her secretary, an office
left vacant by the murder of his brother David at
Holyrood. This was an imprudent step, but was
perhaps to be excused on account of the difficulty in
rinding one amongst her courtiers in whom she could
truly confide.

Her resentment toward Darnley, who had played her
false in many things and, beyond all, in conniving at
the murder of Rizzio, considerably abated as the time
of her confinement drew near ; she also pacified her
nobles, who had long been at deadly feud with one
another, and prevailed upon them to meet amicably at
a banquet which she gave in the old Banqueting Hall
to celebrate their reconciliation. But poor Mary
seems to have been suffering from the apprehension
of another attempt upon her life, and in consequence
made out her will, of which one copy was sent
to France, a second was given into the keeping of her

101

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

Privy Council, and a third she kept herself. The day
before the birth of her son she wrote a letter to Eliza-
beth in her own handwriting announcing the event,
but leaving a blank to be filled in either with " son " or
" daughter," as it might please God to grant unto her.
The birth of James VI took place on Wednesday,
June 19, 1566. It was a happy birth for the whole
island, but proved unfortunate for the Queen. The
welcome tidings were announced by the firing of the
Castle guns from the batteries in close proximity to the
royal apartments. The same afternoon Darnley paid
a visit to the Queen, and expressed a desire to see the
young Prince. "My lord," said Mary, "God has
given you and me a son whose paternity is of none but
you," whereupon Darnley coloured as he stooped and
kissed the child. Mary, taking the child in her arms,
went on, "My lord, here I protest to God as I shall
answer to Him at the great day of judgment, this is
our son and no other man's son ; he is indeed so much
your son that I only fear I will be the worse for him
hereafter"; then turning to Sir William Stanley,
Darnley's principal attendant, added, "This is the
son who I hope will first unite the two kingdoms of
Scotland and England." "Why, Madam," said Sir
William, "shall he succeed before your Majesty and
his father ? " "Alas !" replied Mary, " his father has
broken to me." Upon these words Darnley, who had
stood near, said, " Sweet Madam, is this your promise
that you made, to forget and forgive all ? ' " I have

IO2

THE CHAMBER WHERE JAMES VI WAS BORN

Page 1 02

The ^ Edinburgh Castle

>he kept herself. The day
she wrote a letter to Eliza-

L ,,L. . ,

Iwnting announcing the event,

» bt rilled in either with " son " or

'5^'ht please God to grant unto her.

I took place on Wednesday,

a happy birth for the whole

•nfortvmare for the Queen. The

meed by the firing of the

in close proximity to the

afternoon Darnley paid

/HOH ?AV/ IV ^;iM/il ;l>j iHV/ JJiMtVl^ P$^«ftlii(r to §ee tj^e

; M; S6isj*vr said Mary, "God has

o:,e paternity is of none but

coloured as he stooped and

v.ikmg the child in her arms,

protest to God as I shall

;t day of judgment, this is

son ; he is indeed so much

vill be the worse for him

ng to Sir William Stanley,

' vipa! attendant, added, "This is the

unite the two kingdoms of
" Why, Madam," said Sir

J * '

before your Majesty and
; u Alas ; " replied Mary, " his father has

'pon these words Darnley, who hjf
stood n« J.. - Sweet Madam, is this your promi

nat forget and forgive all ? " " I I

102

"the Story of Edinburgh Castle

forgiven all," answered Mary, " but will never forget.
What if Faudenside's [he was one of the murderers]
pistol had shot ? What would have become of him
and me both, and what estate would you have been
in ? God only knows, but we may suspect."
" Madam," replied Darnley, " these things are all
past." " Then," said the Queen, " let them go."
There were great rejoicings throughout Scotland on
the birth of the heir to the Crown. The General
Assembly of the Church at the same time met and
arranged to send Spotswood, the Superintendent of
Lothian, to congratulate the Queen, and to request
her to permit her son to be baptized and brought up
in the Protestant faith. Mary received the repre-
sentatives very graciously, but was silent and only
smiled at the expression of his brethren's desire. The
child was brought into the room to be shown to the
divine, who took it in his arms and fell upon his
knees and uttered a prayer on its behalf; at its con-
clusion he playfully asked the babe to say " Amen,"
and some little cooing murmur, it is said, escaped the
lips of the infant. Mary was very pleased, and "ever
after called the superintendent her 'Amen.' The
young Prince did the same when he was old enough
to understand the story, and whilst he lived did
respect and reverence him as his spiritual father."
The bedchamber in which tradition says the interesting
and important event took place is the small inner room

of two in the south-east corner of the ground floor

103

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

of the royal palace, but there is much evidence that
runs counter to this tradition. The upper part of
the panelling and the ceiling are as old as the time of
James V. On the panels of the ceiling are the
letters I.R. and M.R. surmounted by a crown, and
on the wall at the end opposite the window are the
royal arms of Scotland and the inscription :

Lord JESU CHRTST, that Crounit was with thornse
Preserve the "Birth , quhais Badgie^ heir is borne,
And send Hir Sonee1 succefsione to T^eigne still
Lang in this T^galme, if that it be Thy will,
A Is Grant, O LORD, quhat ever of Hir prose ed,
Be to Thy (jlorie, Honer and Prais, sobied.

There are records of the tapestries with which the
room was hung, and these show the taste which Queen
Mary displayed in all her residences. The tapestries,
which were of gilded leather, portrayed the Judg-
ment of Pans and The Triumph of Virtue y but
there were others of various devices on green velvet,
cloth-of-gold, and brocaded taffeta, and four recording
the hunting of the unicorn. The chairs- -of which
one was rescued from a sale of canteen furniture and still
remains- -had high backs and were carved with the
crown and cipher. The date of the birth, ' 19
JVNII. 1566,' is painted on the panelling of the
north and south walls of the room. An old but un-
trustworthy story has it that the young Prince was

1 Body. 2 Soon.

104

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

lowered secretly from the window in a basket to the
Queen's adherents, to be taken away and baptized in
their faith.

Below Queen Mary's room there are vaulted dungeons
which are said till lately to have retained the staple of
an iron chain to which many a prisoner was secured
in olden times } but no date or even history of these
massive foundations can be authenticated, though they
certainly belong to a very remote period. There are
other dungeons below the Banqueting Hall, in two
tiers, lighted through small loopholes secured by iron
bars, where the French prisoners were secured during
the Peninsular War ; forty slept in one vault and,
until recently, one could still see the wooden frame-
work from which they slung their hammocks.
A curious and somewhat remarkable discovery was
made in a wall on the west front of the royal rooms
in the year 1830. The wall on being struck was found
to be hollow ; to satisfy curiosity it was opened, when a
cavity was found to exist and in it a small wooden box
containing the remains of an infant. The box was of
great antiquity and much decayed ; the remains of
the child were wrapped in a thickly woven cloth re-
sembling leather, besides a richly embroidered silk
covering with two initials worked upon it, one of
which clearly was marked c I.' Most of the remains
were restored to the curious little cavity, and the wall
was built up again. Daniel Wilson in his Memorials
of Edinburgh says : "It were vain now to attempt a

o 105

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

solution of this mysterious discovery, though it may
furnish the novelist with material on which to found a
thrilling romance."

To come back to the story of Mary and her associa-
tions with the Castle : the birth of a Prince had little
effect on the debauched life of Darnley, who continued
his licentious ways to the great grief of his Queen.
In the meantime the infant James had been christened
at Stirling Castle with unusual magnificence. Elizabeth,
who had consented to stand godmother to her young
heir, appointed the Countess of Argyle as her repre-
sentative and dispatched the Earl of Bedford, her
ambassador, with a font of gold, valued at upward of
one thousand pounds, to be used at the ceremony.
In her instructions to Bedford, she desired him to
express jocularly her fear that as the font had been
made as soon as she heard of the Prince's birth, he
might now have outgrown it. " If you find it so,"
said she, "you may observe that our good sister has
only to keep it for the next child, provided it be
christened before it outgrow the font."
It may be mentioned, to show the abominable
character of Darnley, that to give offence to his
consort he absented himself from the baptism of his
son, although living in the Castle at the time, thus
proclaiming to all assembled the Queen's domestic
unhappiness. Darnley was stricken down with small-
pox and when convalescent was taken to Kirk-o-
Fields, a house which was within view of the Castle

106

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

windows, and now is the site of the University. Early
one February morning the house was blown up, and
Lord Henry Darnley and his page were found dead in
the garden. It is believed that they were first mur-
dered and the house then blown up by Bothwell and
his fellow conspirators whilst Mary was at a masque
ball at Holy rood.

Darnley 's body was taken to Holy rood and buried in
the Chapel. The Queen had her little room at the
Castle hung with black, and remained in privacy until
after the funeral. Elizabeth sent a letter of condolence
by her cousin Killegrew, and on his reception he found
"the Queen's Majesty in a dark chamber, so that he
could not see her face, but by her words she seemed
very doleful."

Mary's unhappy marriage to Bothwell, of whom
Kirkcaldy of Grange says she had become "shame-
fully enamoured'1 -for Bothwell was nothing more
or less than a freebooter- -was the crowning error of
the unfortunate Queen's reign, and took place on
May 15, 1567, at four o'clock in the morning. On
the very evening of the wedding Bothwell behaved
toward her with coldness and indifference, and she
was heard to ask for a knife to stab herself, " or else,"
said she, "I shall drown myself."
The confederate nobles having themselves signed the
bond not only sanctioning the Queen's marriage with
Bothwell but declaring it to be for the interests of

Scotland, found it impossible suddenly and at once to

107

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

disclaim their own act. Nevertheless Morton, Argyle,
Lethington, and Huntly now protested against the
marriage and the conduct of Bothwell, and we find the
confederates now resolved on taking the decided step
of attempting to seize the persons of Mary and her
husband. Apprised of their schemes and unprepared
for resistance, Mary had recourse to flight, and Both-
well fled with her to the Castle of Borthwick, about ten
miles from Edinburgh, and thence to Dunbar Castle.
From here they went to meet the nobles who were
confederated against Bothwell. The meeting took
place at Carberry, and when Bothwell perceived that
his case was hopeless, and that his followers were
deserting him, he mounted his horse and fled with a
few attendants back to Dunbar, and quitted the
kingdom for ever. Mary placed herself in the hands
of the confederates, led by Kirkcaldy of Grange, to
whom she offered her hand, which he kissed, and
taking hold of her horse's bridle he conducted her to
the camp of his associates, where she was received with
grim respect by the leaders and outspoken insult by
the soldiers. At seven o'clock on the same evening
of this eventful day the unhappy Queen made her re-
entrance into Edinburgh, riding between Earl Morton
and the Earl of Atholl, and in the most deplorable
condition, her hair dishevelled, her dress soiled with
travel, her face disfigured with dust and tears, and
so fatigued that she could hardly sit on her saddle,
having been brought by a route which compelled her to

1 08

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

gaze upon the ruin of Kirk-o-Field House, the scene of
Darnley's murder, which must have been most harrow-
ing. The crowd greeted her with yells and jeers ; and
at the Lord Provost's house, she rested for the night.
Next morning after a council at Holyrood she was
taken to Lochleven Castle, were she was kept in close
confinement until her romantic escape. Mary had
already signed the necessary papers abdicating the
Crown in favour of her infant son, who was proclaimed
at the Cross of Edinburgh on July 27, 1567, and
preparations were now made for the immediate coro-
nation of the young Prince at Stirling Castle.
The Coronation procession of the infant King moved
from the sister castle to the High Church, known later
as the West Kirk. The Earl of Athol bore the crown,
the Earl of Morton the sceptre, and the Earl of
Glencairn the sword. The infant, only fourteen
months old, was carried in the arms of the Earl of
Mar. The ceremony lasted from two till five in the
afternoon } John Knox preached the sermon ; the
Bishop of Orkney performed the anointing ; the crown
was held over the little King's head by the Earl of
Mar; and the infant hands were made to touch the
sword and sceptre. At the conclusion of what must
have been to the poor child a very tedious ceremony,
the newly crowned King was carried back to the old
fortress by the Earl of Mar amid great rejoicing. At
night bonfires were lighted all over the country.
A month later the Earl of Murray was proclaimed

100

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

Regent with great solemnity. He ruled the country
with a strong hand and to some extent restored peace
amongst its people, but his Regency did not last long,
for he was cruelly assassinated at Linlithgow on
January 23, 1570, by the Duke of Hamilton, whilst
on his way to Edinburgh from Stirling. He was
succeeded in the Regency by the Earl of Lennox, later
by Mar, and then by the Earl of Morton.
Meantime the Castle was held by Sir William Kirk-
caldy of Grange, who was still a staunch supporter of
Queen Mary ; during this unsettled period he seized
the opportunity of strengthening his position, and
laid in stores which he had seized at Leith, besides
training soldiers.

Queen Elizabeth, bent on subduing Mary's supporters,
sent two skilful engineers to examine the defences of

o

Edinburgh Castle- -their last stronghold- -and they
reported that with a sufficient battering-train the place
might be taken in twenty days. Elizabeth resolved
that the attempt should be made ; Sir William Drury,
the Marshal of Berwick, was chosen to conduct the
enterprise, and his force, consisting of five hundred
hagbutters1 and a hundred and forty pikemen, dis-
embarked at Leith with a considerable train of
artillery. The English were joined by the Regent's
troops, seven hundred strong, and so they marched
to Edinburgh to commence preparations for the great
siege. First, however, a summons to surrender in

1 Soldiers armed with the hagbut or harquebus.

1 10

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

the name of the Regent and the English general was
sent to Kirkcaldy } but although the supply of water
and provisions was nearly exhausted he refused to
submit, and declared that he would hold the Castle
until he was buried beneath its ruins.
Trenches were dug, artillery was placed on advan-
tageous ground commanding the walls, and on
May 17, 1573, the guns of the besiegers opened
fire, concentrating on the principal bastion- -the great
tower built by King David. The shrieks and cries of
the women in the fortress could be heard distinctly in
the English lines, and after a furious cannonade of six
days the south wall of the great tower gave way and
fell with its mass of men and guns, with a crash like
thunder, over the rock below, choking with its rums
the passage to the outer gate. Next day the eastern
part of the tower, the portcullis tower, and another
bastion called Wallace's Tower, shared the same fate.
The garrison now was in a state of desperation ; their
ammunition was exhausted, their water-supply was
rendered impossible by being choked with debris, and the
greater part of the garrison were lying hors de combat
from want of food. The only water-supply left was
from St. Margaret's Well, which however had already
been poisoned by the Regent's troops, and only about
forty men were left to man the guns. Still Kirkcaldy
did not lose heart, and it was not until the besiegers
prepared for a general assault that the brave soldier,
seeing that further resistance was useless, appeared on

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

the ruins of the ramparts with a white wand in his
hand and obtained an armistice of two days. He then
gave up his sword to Drury on receiving his assurance
that it was to the Queen of England and not to the
Regent of Scotland that he surrendered ; but he was
treacherously delivered into the hands of his enemy
the Regent Morton, and despite the strenuous efforts
of his friends, who offered to purchase his pardon by
becoming servants to the house of Morton in a per-
petual " bond of man-rent," and also to pay to the
Regent the sum of two thousand pounds and an annuity
of three thousand marks, but to this offer the Regent

o

turned a deaf ear. On August 3, Sir William Kirkcaldy
and his brother, and two others who were accused of
coining base money within the Castle, were taken to
the Cross of Edinburgh and there hanged and after-

. o

ward decapitated, their heads being fixed on the Castle
walls. The brave Kirkcaldy died full of penitence for
his sins and professing unshaken attachment to the
cause of Mary Stuart.

John Knox on his deathbed sent the following message
to Kirkcaldy : "Say from me, that unless he forsake
that wicked course wherein he is entered, neither shall
that rock on which he confideth defend him, nor the
carnal wisdom of that man whom he counteth a demi-
god (Lethington) make him help, but shamefully shall
he be pulled out of that nest, and his carcass hung
before the sun. The soul of that man is dear unto
me, and, if it be possible, I would fain have him to be

I 12

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

saved." These words of Knox, although they pro-
duced but little impression upon Kirkcaldy at the
time, were afterwards remembered by him when he
was compelled to surrender his stronghold } and it is
recorded that at the time of his execution he acknow-
ledged that Knox had spoken with something of
prophetic truth, and also that he had derived some
consolation from his good wishes and prayers.
On the wall of the Castle close to the inner portcullis
gate there is a memorial tablet to the brave soldier
who so nobly held the fortress in a last futile effort to
re-establish the Queen on the Throne. The fall of
the Castle and the death of Kirkcaldy of Grange was
a death-blow to the unfortunate Queen's party in
Scotland.

"3

CHAPTER VII : The Coronation of
Charles the First

CHAPTER VII : The Coronation
of Charles the First

REGENT MORTON committed the keeping
of the Castle to his brother George Douglas
of Parkhead, one of Rizzio's assassins, who
lost no time in putting the fortress and royal palace
into complete repair, adding the famous half-moon
battery which now forms so characteristic a feature in
the sky-line of Edinburgh. The battlements previous
to the siege presented a series of towers armed by
forty pieces of cannon, connected with curtain walls ;
but they were demolished by the assailants, who used
in their assaults " hundred-pounders ' loaded by a
crane.

Over the gateway of the restored portcullis tower the
Regent placed the royal arms surmounted by hearts
and mullets, the cognizance of his own family ; these
still remain in the entablature. The Scottish lion was
removed during the Commonwealth, but has recently
been replaced. Morton's government became so
objectionable that the nobles implored the King, then
only twelve years old, to consider the possibility of
inducing the Regent to resign. They represented to
him, in a lengthy oration, the miserable condition to
which the country was reduced by the extortion and
misgovernment of the Regent, and his insolent and
haughty bearing to the nobility. This intrigue must
have come to the ears of Morton, for we find a letter

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

sent by him to the King, in which he requests to be
relieved from the cares of office. A Convention met
in 1578 and the Regent's letter was laid before them,
when they unanimously resolved that his resignation
should be accepted, and that the King should take
the government into his own hands. The joy of the
people of all ranks on hearing the news of his resigna-
tion, which was proclaimed by heralds at the Cross,
was excessive, and the deafening acclamations by
which it was testified convinced Morton that he had
utterly forfeited the affections of his countrymen.
The King commanded Morton to deliver up the
Castle of Edinburgh, which he still continued to
hold ; but he showed some unwillingness to surrender
a fortress the possession of which might have helped
in his ambitious designs. His brother, the captain,
was in the meantime actively engaged in storing the
place with provisions, which looked as if Morton
really contemplated defending it.
The inhabitants of the town suspecting his purpose,
rose in arms and intercepted a convoy of stores on
their way to the Castle ; whereupon George Douglas
of Parkhead came out with a party of soldiers, who,
discharging their pieces among the people, killed
many of them and wounded others. The population,
enraged and alarmed, so strictly watched all the avenues
of the Castle that ingress and egress became impos-
sible. Under those circumstances, Morton, without
any show of resistance, surrendered the fortress to

118

THE ARGYLL, TOWER AND PORTCULLIS GATE

%

Page 118

<Tfo, tin burgh Castle

sent ; he requests to be

rei;CN A Convention rr

in 1578 and rh< er was laid before the :

when they unanirm wived that his resignation

be accept *h*tt the King should take

•<*. n hands. The joy of the
np the news of his resigna-

c> ^

•d by heralds at the Cross,
ieafening acclamations by
inced Morton that he had

k'i^tt.m to deliver up the
he still continued to
willingness to surrender
mh might have helped
brother, the captain,
.ngaged in storing the
looked as if Morton

ispecting his purpose,
convoy of stores on
n upon George Douglas
party of soldiers, who,
the people, killed
hers. The population,

ly watched all the avenues
j

of the O*st i< **id egress became impos-

sible. I ?Kk-' r**-rf * m>tances, Morton, wit-5

'rendered the forties

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

Lords Ruthven and Lindsay, who took possession of
the royal apartments and the Crown jewels ; while the
keys of the gates were delivered to Seton of Touch
and Cunningham of Drumwhassel.
The influence of Morton with the young King was
now gone, and the hatred of him by the nobles cul-
minated at the end of the year 1580 in his arrest.
His trial commenced five months later, on June i,
1581, for the murder of Darnley, for which crime
he had put others to death. On the following
day, amidst the great rejoicings of an antagonistic
crowd, he was executed by a guillotine called the
"Maiden," which he had himself invented. Calder-
wood relates that when Morton was being taken
as prisoner to the Castle, "a woman whose husband
he had put to death cursed him aloud on her knees
at the Butter Tron." His head was stuck on a
spike at the Tolbooth, and his body buried at
the Burghmuir, the burial-place for the worst type of
criminal.

During the reign of James VI the King's visits to the
Castle were few, and few noteworthy incidents occurred
there. Under the guidance of his tutor, George
Buchanan, he resided at Stirling and Holyrood in a
homely way until his accession to the English throne.
The Castle, however, is mentioned in the record of
James' State entry into Edinburgh with his bride
Queen Anne of Denmark. The procession approach-
ing from the palace came in sight of the old fortress,

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

which gave her " thence a great voley of shot,
with their banners and ancient displays upon the
walls."

On June 19, 1616, his fifty-third birthday, James
feasted the Scottish and English nobles in the
Banqueting Hall, and thereafter went to Holyrood to
witness a grand display of fireworks.
State prisoners continued to be committed to the
dungeons in the rocky foundations of the old fortress,
from which few if any escaped with their lives.
George Kerr, however, through the clemency of the
King, was an exception. On a charge of Popery he
had been confined in those death holes for some time
when he was permitted to make his escape. An
apparent attempt was made to recapture him, but this
was purposely rendered ineffective by sending out
pursuers in one direction while he was conveyed away
in another. This artifice was so palpable that on the
following Sunday it was publicly exposed from the
pulpit and condemned as a "mockery."
James' association with the Castle was not entirely to
end at his accession to the Throne of England, upon
the death of Elizabeth; on April 5, 1603, accom-
panied by a splendid retinue of noblemen, barons,
and gentlemen, he set out from the land of his birth
on his journey south amid the tears of the citizens,
who, though they sincerely rejoiced at his exaltation,
which they fondly hoped would conduce to the peace
of the country, could not witness his departure with-

120

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

out regret. Fourteen years later he paid the only
visit between his leave-taking and his death, and in
preparation for it much work was done in the restora-
tion and repair of the Castle building.
James had an interesting personality, and his quaint
figure was missed from the walks of the Castle ; he
looked very stout from the peculiar fashion of his
doublet, which was quilted, so as to be stiletto-proof}
he walked clumsily, owing to the weakness of his
legs, which never seemed to have strength enough to
support his body. He kept his heavy eyes continually
rolling, and his tongue when he spoke seemed to be
too large for his mouth ; his utterance was in conse-
quence thick and indistinct. "Dirty in his habits, he
never washed his hands but simply wiped the points
of his fingers with a wet napkin. He always fiddled
about with his fingers, and as he walked he was often
leaning on other men's shoulders." So if this picture
be correct, James certainly did not inherit any of the
elegance ascribed to his mother.

After the birth of James and the dramatic departure
of his ill-fated mother the Castle had for a short
time little concern in Scottish annals ; but with the
succession of James' only surviving son Charles, who
succeeded to the Throne in his twenty-fifth year, the
historic landmark of Edinburgh once more comes into

o

prominence. Charles had completed ten years of his
reign before he made a visit to the birthplace of his
father, although he had long felt the desire to revisit

121

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

the land of his nativity and the kingdom of his
ancestors. On May 16, 1633, Charles I entered his
Scottish capital, and this was made the occasion of
his coronation. Charles is said to have expressed his
desire that the Regalia of Scotland should be taken
from the Castle and sent up to London for the pur-
pose of being used at his coronation there ; but this
was esteemed contrary to the independent rights of
his Scottish kingdom, and so the King found it
necessary to visit Scotland in person.
Charles rode at the head of a splendid retinue which
included the officers of the royal household, who
formed a bodyguard, and five hundred English
noblemen, gentlemen, and ecclesiastics, including the
intolerant Laud, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury,
whose presence was to regulate the forms of devotion
of the Scottish Church.

According to old custom, Charles made his public entry
into the capital by the west port. He was met out-
side by Drummond, the poet of Hawthornden, who
welcomed him in a long congratulatory address
abounding in fulsome adulation which is believed to
have done no honour to his poetical genius. The
pageantry exceeded in magnificence anything that had
ever been seen in Scotland ; the reception which the
new King met with from all ranks of his northern
subjects evinced a depth and fervour of loyalty which
it had been well for him and for the country if he
had wisely laboured to conserve. Charles rode on

122

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

horseback, attended by sixteen coaches and the Horse
Guards, until at length he reached

That noble, stately dome

Where Scotia's Kings of other years

Famed heroes, had their royal home

which thundered from its batteries a salute of fifty-
two guns.

Charles remained in the royal lodging attended by his
nobles, and the morrow being Sunday he attended
the Chapel Royal, where a sermon was preached by
the Bishop of Dunblane. The Earl of Mar gave a
great banquet in the old hall of the palace in honour
of the occasion, and this was attended by all the
foremost noblemen of Scotland and England. Next
day Charles was enthroned under a velvet canopy in
the same hall, attended by the Duke of Lennox,
who at that time was Lord High Chamberlain of
Scotland.

Then the peers in stately procession, wearing their
robes of dark crimson velvet and chains of office,
entered, each preceded by his page in full court
dress bearing on a velvet cushion his lord's coronet.
After an address by the Chancellor, Viscount Dupplin,
Charles was conducted to the square in front of the
palace, wherein were waiting his English footguards
and others who were about to take part in the State
procession to the Abbey.

Edinburgh had perhaps never witnessed such a scene

123

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

of magnificence and costly grandeur, the extravagance
of many of the Scottish nobility on this occasion
meant embarrassment and even ruin to some, but the
Scots had determined at all cost to efface the impres-
sion of poverty with which they had been taunted by
their English fellow-subjects.

The procession moved through the Castle square,
past the half-moon battery, and down through the
inner portcullis gate to the upper reaches of Castle
Hill, where every window was crowded with excited
faces. Flags and banners floated in the breeze from
the housetops, and the windows were decorated with
flowers and tapestry. " First," says Spalding, " came
mounted on a roan horse, having a saddle of rich
velvet sweeping the ground and massive with pase-
ments of gold, Alexander Clark, the provost, at the
head of the bailies and council to meet the King,
while the long perspective of the crowded street
was lined by a brave company of soldiers, all clad
in white satin doublets, black velvet breeches and
silk stockings, with hats, feathers, scarfs, and bands.
These gallants had dainty muskets, pikes, and gilded
partisans."

The procession moved slowly from the Castle gate,
preceded by six trumpeters in gold lace and scarlet.
Then came the lords in their robes of scarlet, ermined
and laced, riding with long foot-mantles j the bishops
in their white rochets and lawn sleeves looped with

gold ; the York and Norroy English kings-at-arms

124

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

with their heralds, pursuivants, and trumpeters in
tabards blazing with gold and embroidery ; Sir James
Balfour, the Scottish Lion King, preceding the spurs,
sword, sceptre, and crown, borne by earls.
Then rode the Lord High Constable, with his baton,
supported by the Great Chamberlain and Earl
Marshal, preceding Charles, who was arrayed in a
robe of purple velvet once worn by James IV, and
had a foot-cloth embroidered with silver and pearls.
His long train was borne by the young lords Lome,
Annan, Dalkeith, and Kinfauns.

Then came the Gentlemen Pensioners, marching with
partisans uplifted ; then the Yeomen of the Guard,
clad in doublets of russet velvet, with the royal arms
in raised embroidered work of silver and gold on the

o

back and breast of each coat- -each company com-
manded by an earl. The gentlemen of the Scottish
Horse Guards where all armed a la cuirassier, and
carried swords, petronels, and musketoons. The
gorgeous procession moved down the High Street
and Canongate, in the centre of which was a railed-
in pathway, each side of which was thronged with
thousands of the citizens, and came at length to
Holyrood, where in the presence of the august
assembly and with great solemnity the crown was
placed on the head of Charles by Spotswood, Arch-
bishop of St. Andrews. The Bishop of Moray,
newly appointed Lord Almoner, exercised his new
function by scattering among the spectators within

I25

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

the chapel handfuls of silver medals in commemoration
of the event.

On July 1 8 the newly crowned Scottish King left
his northern capital to return to London. His visit
to Edinburgh and residence in the Castle, with the
wealth of pageantry and public rejoicings, did not
leave behind it the loyalty which one would imagine
must follow such events j this, however, is easily
explained by the fact that Laud attempted to impose
upon the Scottish people Episcopacy. This after-
ward resulted in civil war, in which the Castle played
an important part.

The national Covenant was drawn up to protest
against the interference with the national religion by
innovations which were regarded as the harbingers of
Popery. The Covenanting Committees drew up a
notice which was rapidly circulated throughout the
kingdom, calling on the whole body of the supplicants
to repair with all expedition to Edinburgh to arrange
measures for their common safety and to make an
appeal to the King. Charles paid no heed to the
demands of the Covenanters, but sent a commissioner,
the Marquis of Hamilton, as his representative with
instructions to endeavour to bring about a pacification
without really withdrawing the innovations com-
plained of.

On his arrival at the gates of the city Hamilton found
the Castle invested with armed men, and refused to

enter the town as long as the fortress was in a state
126

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

of blockade. Although entreated to take up his
residence in the royal palace he, after a long meeting
and the eventual posting of a proclamation, returned
across the border with the result of his mission to
Charles, so that he could inform him more fully of
the state of the country. Both sides had now buckled
on the sword, but neither was willing to take the
offensive, especially the Covenanters whose ideals led
them rather to act on the defensive. Meantime many
Scottish merchants and travellers were arrested in
England and Ireland and were kept as prisoners until
they disclaimed the Covenant. In 1639 a general
attack was planned by the principal Scottish leaders
to secure among other strongholds the Castle of
Edinburgh. General Alexander Leslie with a picked
battalion of one thousand " musketeers ' suddenly
appeared before the gates of the Castle, which
was then badly provided for and feebly garrisoned.
There was a short parley, but the governor obstinately
refused to surrender ; whereupon a petard was applied
to the outer gate, which was immediately blown
open.

A vigorous assault was then made on the inner gate
with hammers and axes, but the strength of the metal
trellis-work was too much for the assailants, who there-
upon rushed forward their scaling-ladders, and mount-
ing sword in hand found themselves in less than half
an hour in possession of the most important stronghold

of the kingdom without the loss of a single man or

127

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

even of a drop of blood. The governor was permitted
to retire and carry the news to the King, while the
brave general that night gave the Covenanting lords
a banquet in the hall of the Castle and hoisted their
blue standard with the motto, " For an oppressed Kirk
and a broken Covenant," on the mast of the tower
above the royal palace. This ancient banner is still
preserved in the Edinburgh antiquarian museum.
Lord Traquair's residence at Dalkeith was next sur-
prised and captured } here were found secreted the
crown, sword, and sceptre, which were at once carried
safely back to their proper home in Edinburgh Castle.
On King Charles' birthday, November 19, 1640, an
unaccountable accident happened. A portion of the
curtain wall, one of the oldest pieces of masonry of
the Castle, collapsed and fell with a crash over the rock.
The Covenanters after a convention with the King
disbanded their army, and the Castle was restored
to the Royalists, who placed in it a garrison under
Sir Patrick Ruthven. The new governor took
possession on February 25, 1640, marching through
the High Street to the beat of drums. In conse-
quence of the magistrates' refusal to supply the
incoming garrison with provisions, the soldiers com-
menced firing on the town and destroyed a considerable
amount of property, besides occasioning loss of life j
and on Parliament demanding the discontinuance of
hostilities or the surrender of the Castle, the governor
treated the demand with contempt.

128

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

Leslie, therefore, was once more ordered to besiege the
fortress, and he erected batteries on the Castle Hill, in
Greyfriars Churchyard, and at the West Kirk. The
ordnance did little damage, however, owing to the
lightness of the guns, and little progress was made in
the work of destruction.

Ruthven made a stern defence : his guns threatened
the whole city ; even the spire of St. Giles' was in
danger of being battered to pieces under the ruthless
fire of the Royalists. At last the Covenanters sprang
a mine and blew up a part of the wall of the Spur
Battery, making a breach, whereupon a grand assault
was made ; but the Scots were beaten back with con-
siderable loss by the heavy fire of the musketeers.
Weddal, one of the leaders, who led the attack, was
horribly wounded, having both thighs shot through,
and out of the numbers that made the assault only
thirty-three escaped with their lives.
The breach in the wall was speedily closed by the
soldiers of Ruthven } and the Covenanters, disheartened
by their failure, resolved to turn the siege into a
blockade and depend on the gradual approach of
starvation to reduce the garrison to surrender.

o

By coincidence the explosion of a gunpowder magazine
under the Castle of Dunglas alarmed the inhabitants of
the surrounding country to such an extent that beacons
were immediately lighted, and soon these warning
signals were ablaze on every point of vantage for
miles around.

R 129

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

The beleaguered garrison had been daily expecting
relief by the arrival of the English fleet, and mistaking
the beacon-fires for an announcement of this happy
event, they held a great feast with the remainder of
their provisions. The unfortunate mistake was soon
discovered. To hold out without provisions was an
impossibility, and so the gallant defenders had to
surrender. Honourable conditions were allowed them
for their bravery, and Ruthven marched out at the
head of a remnant of his garrison with but one drum
beating, after a blockade of three months, and took
ship for England in a King's vessel. Once more the
important fortress commanding the capital was in the
hands of the patriots.

During the remaining years of the unfortunate King
Charles I he only once visited Edinburgh Castle, when
he prayed for the release of the Duke of Montrose,
who with his friends Napier, Stirling, and Stewart of
Blackshall were all lying imprisoned in its dungeons.
When Charles assembled his first Parliament in the
Castle he addressed the members with earnestness and
simplicity of words and thought, which strongly con-
trasted with the oratorical harangues of his father.
"It cannot," says Hume, "be alleged against Charles
that he preceded the Parliament in the war of words.
He courted their affections ; and even in his manner
of reception, amidst the dignity of the regal office,
studiously showed his exterior respect by the marked

solemnity of their first meeting. As yet uncrowned,

130

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

on the day on which he first addressed his Parliament
he wore his crown, and vailed it at the opening, and
on the close of his speech ; a circumstance to which
the Parliament had not been accustomed. Another
ceremony gave still greater solemnity to the meeting;
the King would not enter into business till they had
united in prayer. He commanded the doors to be
closed, and a Bishop to perform the office. The
suddenness of this unexpected command disconcerted
the Catholic lords, of whom the less rigid knelt, and
the moderate stood ; there was one startled Papist
who did nothing but cross himself."
In 1648 the Marquis of Argyll, the dictator of
Scotland, invited Oliver Cromwell to Edinburgh
and entertained him at a great banquet in the hall
of the Castle, where they discussed the necessity
of taking away the life of Charles, for which act
Argyll afterwards lost his own head. After the
coronation of Charles II at Scone in 1651 Parliament
ordered the Castle to be put in a proper state of
defence, news having reached Edinburgh of the
approach of Cromwell at the head of a formidable
army. Colonel Walter Dundas was in command,
and at once laid in stores for a long siege. These
included 1000 bolls of meal and malt and 1000 tons
of coal, with threescore of cannon and the famous
Mons Meg, besides 80,000 small arms and a plentiful
supply of ammunition.
"In a rare old tract of 1650," says Grant, "the

'3*

The Story of Edinburgh C astle

appearance is recorded of a horrible apparition, which
created great alarm in the fortress. On a dark
and gloomy night the sentinel, under the shadow of
the gloomy half-moon, was alarmed by the beating
of a drum upon the esplanade and the tread of
marching feet, on which he fired his musket. Colonel
Dundas hurried forth, but could see nothing on the
bleak expanse, the site of the now demolished Spur.
The sentinel was truncheoned and another put in his
place, to whom the same thing happened, and he,
too, fired his musket, affirming that he heard the
tread of soldiers marching to the tuck of drums.
To Dundas nothing was visible, nothing audible but
the moan of an autumn wind. He took a musket
and the post of the sentinel. Anon he heard the old
Scots march beaten by an invisible drummer; who
came close up to the gate : — then came other sounds-
the tramp of many feet and clank of accoutrements ;
still nothing was visible, till the whole impalpable
array seemed to halt close by Dundas, who was be-
wildered with consternation. Again the drum was
heard beating the English march, and then the
French march, when the alarm ended; but the next
drums that were beaten there were those of Oliver
Cromwell."

132

CHAPTER VIII : Cromwell and
the Ministers

CHAPTER VIII : Cromwell and
the Ministers

CROMWELL made his raid on Edinburgh
and invested the Castle in 1650, two years
after he had been the guest of the Marquis
of Argyll, who had entertained him in the Banqueting
Hall of the fortress. Charles II watched from the
ramparts of the Castle the manoeuvres of the troops of
the Protector in their endeavours to reach the city, on
the occasion when they were beaten at St. Leonards,
then a village on the outskirts of Edinburgh. The
disastrous result of the defeat at Dunbar a few days
later, however, turned the tables, and Edinburgh had
to surrender to the Ironsides, with the exception of the
fortress, in which most of the clergy had taken refuge.
The prisoners who were taken at the battle of Dunbar
suffered cruelty unknown to a Christian country.
Dr. Taylor says, " It was most dishonourable to
Cromwell and the Parliament." They were transported
to the English settlements in America, and there sold
for slaves. On their journey to England they were
treated with the greatest barbarity, as will be seen from
a letter of Haselrig (one of Cromwell's commandants)
to the Council of State (Parliamentary Hist.,
vol. xix.).

" When they came to Morpeth, the prisoners being put
into a large walled garden, they ate up raw cabbages,
leaves, and roots, so many, as the very seed and
labour at ^d per day was valued at ^9, which cabbage

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

(they having fasted, as they themselves said, near
eight days) poisoned their bodies ; for as they were
coming from thence to Newcastle, some died by the
wayside. When they came to Newcastle, I put
them into the greatest church in the town ; and the
next morning when I sent them to Durham, about
140 were sick and not able to march ; three died that
night, and some fell down in their march from New-
castle to Durham, and died. I having sent my
lieutenant-colonel and my major with a strong guard
both of horse and foot, they being there told into the
great cathedral church, were counted to no more than
3000, although Colonel Fenwick wrote to me that
there were about 3500. But I believe they were
not told at Berwick, and as to most of those that
were lost, it was in Scotland ; for I heard that the
officers who marched with them to Berwick, were
necessitated to kill about thirty, fearing the loss of
them all, for they fell down in great numbers, and
said they were not able to march, and they brought
them far in the night, so that doubtless many ran
away. Notwithstanding all this many of them died,
and few of any other disease than the flux [dysentery] ;
some were killed by themselves, for they were exceeding
cruel one towards another. If any man were perceived
to have any money, it was two to one lest he was
killed before morning and robbed ; and if any had
good cloaths, he that wanted, if he was able, would

strangle the other and put on his cloaths.

136

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

" You cannot but think strange of this long preamble,
and wonder what the matter will be. In short, it is
this : out of the 3000 prisoners that my officers told
into the cathedral church at Durham, only 600 are in
health, and who are in all probability Highlanders,
they being hardier than the rest ; but we have no
means to distinguish them."

Cromwell offered the ministers who were shut up in
the Castle liberty to preach in the city churches $ but
this offer they declined, and a lengthy correspondence
took place between them and the pious Protector
respecting the violation of the Covenant and the
abuse of unlicensed persons interfering with the work
of the ministry, for not only lay preachers but even
soldiers held forth to great congregations from the
vacant pulpits.

For the Honourable the Governor of the Castle of

Edinburgh

EDINBURGH, September 9, 1650
SIR,

I received command from my lord general to desire
you to let the ministers of Edinburgh, now in the Castle
with you, know that they have free liberty granted
them, if they please to take the pains, to preach in their
several churches ; and that my lord hath given special
command both to officers and soldiers, that they shall
not in the least be molested.

I am, Sir,

Your most humble servant,

EDWARD WHALLEY
s '37

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

To Commissary General W^halley

EDINBURGH CASTLE, September 9, 1650
SIR,

I have communicated the desire of your letter to
such of the ministers of Edinburgh as are with me, who
have desired me to return this for answer.
That though they are ready to be spent in their Master's
service, and to refuse no suffering so they may fulfil
their ministry with joy, yet, perceiving the persecution
to be personal by the practice of your party upon the
ministers of Christ in England and Ireland, and in
the kingdom of Scotland since your unjust invasion
thereof ; and finding nothing expressed in yours where-
upon to build any security for their persons while they
are there, and for their return hither ; they are resolved
to reserve themselves for better times, and to wait upon
Him who hath hidden His face for a while from the
sons of Jacob.
This is all I have to say, but that

I am, Sir,

Your most humble servant,

W. DUNDAS

For the Honourable the Governor of the Castle of
Edinburgh^ these

EDINBURGH, September 9, 1650
SIR,

The kindness offered to the ministers with you was
done with ingenuity, thinking it might have met with
the like ; but I am satisfied to tell those with you,
that, if their Master's service (as they call it) were

chiefly in their eye, imagination of suffering would not
r38

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

have caused such a return ; much less would the prac-
tice of our party, as they are pleased to say, upon the
ministers of Christ in England have been an argument
of personal persecution. The ministers of England
are supported, and have liberty to preach the Gospel,
though not to rail, nor, under the pretence thereof,
to overtop the civil power, or debase it as they please.
No man hath been troubled in Ireland for preaching
the Gospel ; nor hath any minister been molested in
Scotland since the coming of the army hither. The
speaking of truth becomes the ministers of Christ.
When ministers pretend to a Glorious Reformation,
and lay the foundation thereof in getting to themselves
worldly power ; and can make worldly mixtures to
accomplish the same, such as their late agreement with
their King ; and hope by him to carry on their design,
they may know that the Sion promised will not be
built by such untempered mortar.

As for the unjust invasion they mention, time was
when an army of Scotland came into England, not
called by the supreme authority. We have said in our
papers with what hearts and upon what accounts we
come ; and the Lord has heard us, though you would
not, upon as solemn an appeal as any experience can
parallel.

And although they seem to comfort themselves with
being sons of Jacob, from whom (they say) God hath
hid His face for a time, yet it is no wonder when the
Lord hath lifted up His hand so eminently against a
family as He hath done so against this, and men will not
see His hand — it is no wonder if the Lord will hide
His face from such, putting them to shame both for it
and their hatred of His people, as it is this day. When
they purely trust to the sword of the Spirit which is the
Word of God, which is powerful to bring down strong-
holds and every imagination that exalts itself — which

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

alone is able to square and fit the stones for the New
Jerusalem — then, and not before, and by that means
and no other, shall Jerusalem, the city of the Lord,
which is to be the praise of the whole earth, be built;
the Sion of the Holy One of Israel.
I have nothing to say, but that

I am, Sir,

Your humble servant,

OLIVER CROMWELL

To the Right Honourable the Lord Cromwell^
Commander-in-Chief of the English Army

EDINBURGH CASTLE, September 9, 1650
MY LORD,

Yours I have communicated to those with me whom
it concerned, who desire me to return this answer :
That their ingenuity in prosecuting the ends of the
Covenant, according to their vocation and place, and
in adhering to their first principles, is well known ;
and one of their greatest regrets is that they have not
been met with the like. That when ministers of the
Gospel have been imprisoned, deprived of their bene-
fices, sequestrated, forced to flee from their dwellings
and bitterly threatened for their faithful declaring the
will of God against the godless and wicked proceedings
of men, it cannot be accounted an imaginary fear of
suffering in such as are resolved to follow the like
freedom and faithfulness in discharge of their Master's
message. That it savours not of ingenuity to promise
liberty of preaching the Gospel, and to limit the
preachers thereof, that they must not speak against
the sins and enormities of civil powers ; since their
commission carrieth them to speak the Word of the
140

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

Lord unto, and to reprove the sins of persons of all
ranks, from the highest to the lowest. That to impose
the name of c railing ' upon such faithful freedom,
was the old practice of malignants against the ministers
of the Gospel, who laid open to the people the wicked-
ness of their ways, lest men should be ensnared thereby.
That their consciences bear them record, and all their
hearers do know, that they meddle not with civil affairs
farther than to hold forth the rule of the Word, by
which the straightness and crookedness of men's actions
are made evident. But they are sorry they have such
cause to regret that men of mere civil place and em-
ployment should usurp the calling and employment
of the ministry to the scandal of the Reformed Kirks,
and particularly in Scotland contrary to the government
and discipline therein established — to the maintenance
whereof you are bound by Solemn League and
Covenant.

Thus far they have thought fit to vindicate their return
to the offer in Colonel Whalley's letter. The other
part of yours which concerns the public as well as
them, they conceive hath all been answered sufficiently
in the public papers of the State and Kirk. Only to
that of the success upon your < solemn appeal,' they
say again what was said to it before, That they have
not so learned Christ as to hang the equity of their
cause upon events, but desire to have their hearts estab-
lished in the love of the truth in all the tribulations
that befall them.
I do only add that

I am, my lord,

Your most humble servant,

W. DUNDAS

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

For the Governor of the Edinburgh Castle^ these

EDINBURGH, September 12, 1650
SIR,

Because I am at reasonable good leisure, I cannot let
such gross mistakes and unconsequential reasonings
pass without some notice taken of them. And first,
their ingenuity in relation to the Covenant for which
they commend themselves doth no more justify their
want of ingenuity in answer to Colonel Whalley's
Christian offer, concerning which my letter charged
them with guiltiness and deficiency, than their bearing
witness to themselves of their adhering to their first
principles, and ingenuity in persecuting the ends of the
Covenant, justifies them so to have done merely because
they say so. They must give more leave henceforwards,
for Christ will have it so — nill they, will they — and
they must have patience to have the truth of their
doctrines and sayings tried by the sure touchstone of
the Word of God.

But if these gentlemen do assume to themselves to be
the infallible expositors of the Covenant, as they do
too much to their auditories to be the infallible expo-
sitors of the Scriptures also, counting a different sense
and judgment from theirs — breach of Covenant and
heresy — no marvel they judge of others so authori-
tatively and severely. But we have not so learned
Christ. We look at ministers as helpers of, not lords
over, God's people. I appeal to their consciences,
whether any person trying their doctrines and dissenting
shall not incur the censure of sectary ? And what
is this but to deny Christians their liberty, and assume
the Infallible Chair ? What doth he whom we
would not be likened unto [the Pope] do more than
this ? . . .
142

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

But it will be found that these reprovers do not only
make themselves the judges and determiners of sin, that
so they may reprove ; but they also took liberty to stir
up the people to blood and arms, and would have
brought a war upon England, as hath been upon Scot-
land, had not God prevented it. And if such severity
as hath been expressed toward them be worthy of the
name of ' personal persecution,' let all uninterested
men judge; and whether the calling of the practice
' railing ' be to be paralleled with the malignants'
imputation upon the ministers, for speaking against the
Popish innovations in the Prelates' times, and the other
tyrannical and wicked practices then on foot, let your
own consciences remind you. . . .
You say, you have just cause to regret that men of civil
employments should usurp the calling and employment
of the ministry, to the scandal of the Reformed Kirks.
Are you troubled that Christ is preached ? Is preaching
so exclusively your function ? Doth it scandalise the
Reformed Kirks, and Scotland in particular ? Away
with the Covenant if this be so ! I thought the Covenant
and these professors of it could have been willing that
any should speak good of the name of Christ ; if not,
it is no covenant of God's approving; nor are these
kirks you mention insomuch the spouse of Christ.
Where do you find in the Scripture a ground to warrant
such an assertion, that preaching is exclusively your
function ? . . .

And if you will call our speakings together since we came
into Scotland, to provoke one another to love and good
works, to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and repentance
from dead works ; and charity and love towards you to
pray and mourn for you, and for your better returns
to c our love of you,' and your incredulity of our profes-
sions of love to you, of the truth of which we have
made our solemn and humble appeals to the Lord

H3

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

our God, which He hath heard and borne witness
to ; if you will call things scandalous to the Kirk, and
against the Covenant, because done by men of civil
callings, we rejoice in them, notwithstanding what
you say. . . .

The Lord pity you. Surely we, for our part, fear;
because it hath been a merciful and gracious deliver-
ance to us. I beseech you in the bowels of Christ,
search after the mind of the Lord in it towards you,
and we shall help you by our prayers, that you may
find it out ; for yet (if we know our hearts at all) our
bowels do, in Christ Jesus, yearn after the godly in
Scotland. We know there are stumbling-blocks which
hinder you : personal prejudices you have taken up
against us and our ways, wherein we cannot but think
some occasion has been given, and for which we mourn ;
the apprehension you have that we have hindered the
Glorious Reformation you think you were upon ; I am
persuaded these and such like bind you up from an
understanding and yielding to the mind of God in this
great day of His power and visitation. And, if I be
rightly informed, the late blow you received is attributed
to profane counsels and conduct, and mixtures in your
army, and such like. The natural man will not find
out the course. Look up to the Lord, that He may
tell it you ; which that He would do, shall be the
fervent prayer ot

Your loving friend and servant,

OLIVER CROMWELL

Finding negotiations useless, and his attempts at re-
ducing the Castle by a blockade of three months being

futile, besides an endeavour to capture it by mining,

144

The Story of Edinburgh C as fie

the Lord-General prepared batteries, which it is said
he mounted on the tombstones of Greyfriars church-
yard. The old fortress was, however, well provisioned
for a siege, and Augustine, a German soldier of
fortune, at the head of a hundred and twenty horse
bravely broke through the lines of the Protector's
army, killing eighty men and taking several prisoners,
and further strengthened the defending garrison with
a reinforcement of thirty-six men.
Cromwell, however, continued the siege with the
utmost vigour, working a mine on the side of the rock
next the Castle road, traces of which can still, it is
thought, be seen. This was wrought by coal-miners,
who worked under terror of the enemies' muskets.
But the governor, Walter Dundas, a traitor, and his
officers, who belonged to the party of Protestors, from
the beginning had shown no real fight, and after some
interchange of letters, which occupied a few days,
Dundas surrendered the Castle on condition that the
garrison should march out with the honours of war,
and that all public records should be safely conveyed
to Stirling. Accordingly the garrison at midday
marched out with colours flying, and the Castle was
then occupied by the English.

Cromwell in his report to Parliament said that the
fall of this fortress was a very great and seasonable
mercy } there were sixty-seven guns of various sizes
in the Castle, a greater amount of brass ordnance
than all the rest of Scotland contained. " I need say

T H5

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

little," he adds, "o f the strength of this place, which,
if it had not come in as it did, would have cost very
much blood to have attained : and did tie up your
army to that inconvenience that little or nothing could
have been attained while this was in design, or little
fruit had of anything brought into our power by your
army hitherto without it.':

The records of the kingdom, which were removed to
Stirling after the surrender, fell a second time into the
hands of the enemy, and were sent by Monk to the
Tower of London. A number were restored by
Cromwell in 1657; the rest — contained in eighty-five
hogsheads- -were lost on their return journey by sea
to Scotland.

When Dun das was ordered to appear before the
Scottish Parliament to explain his capitulation of the
Castle, he was called " a base, cowardly, traitorous
villain ' by Sir James Balfour. Cromwell on entering
Edinburgh's stronghold, amongst other measures
ordered the destruction of the royal arms over the
gate, and the wonder is that there remain so many
traces of the Stuart monarchs in the Castle to-day.
A few disturbances, principally through the English
soldiers behaving in a bombastic manner, much
resented by the Scottish people, took place sub-
sequently in Edinburgh. One incident is especially
recorded by Patrick Gordon. One of Cromwell's
officers, emerging from the Castle, cried aloud boast-
fully whilst mounting his steed : u With my own
146

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

hands I killed the Scot to whom this horse and these
pistols belonged ; who dare say I wronged him ? ' "I
dare, and thus avenge him," exclaimed an angry Scot
at this insolence, as he drew his sword and slew the
boaster. The next moment he had mounted the
now riderless horse and was on his way to the nearest
port, whence he vanished into the country.
The rule of Cromwell, although galling to the pride
of the Scottish people, gave Scotland and its war-
worn Castle ten years of comparative repose and
prosperity, when the death of the great General and
Protector on September 3, 1658, terminated the
peace that had benefited the city. The Royalists, who
now seized the favourable opportunity for bringing
about the restoration of the King, had been watch-
ing their opportunity from the shores of France.
Strangely enough Edinburgh and the Scottish people
went wild with enthusiasm at the idea of once more
having a monarchy. At the Cross his Majesty's
health was drunk by hundreds of citizens j the Cross
itself was decorated with flowers, and the guns at the
Castle thundered forth salutes in honour of Charles II;
even Mons Meg was loaded and fired by the com-
manding officer.

Soon after the death of Cromwell General Monk
was suspected by the English councils of
infidelity. They dispatched a messenger with an
order to Colonel Newman, the governor of Edinburgh
Castle, to remove him from the command of the

H7

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

forces in Scotland. The messenger met an old friend
at the Canongate, who happened to be a servant to
Monk, who accosted him with cordiality. " How
comes it," he asked, " that you go in this direction,
and not as usual to the General at Dalkeith?"
"Because my dispatches are for the Castle." The
servant of Monk suspected something was wrong, and
proposed they should have a bottle together. The
messenger drank freely ; the servant stole the dis-
patch, Monk received it, and at once commenced
his march southward, with the Army of Scotland, to
accomplish the Restoration.

There is an interesting story in connexion with the
firing of the salute from the Castle guns. An old
adherent of Cromwell's campaign refused to obey the
command, saying, " May the devil blaw me into the
air gif I lowse a cannon this day- -if I do some
man shall repent it," whereupon he was made by
force to discharge a cannon, which burst with
terrible results, "shuites his bellie from him, and blew
him quyte over the Castle wall, in the sichte of mony
pepill."

At the commencement of the year 1661 a garrison
was enlisted in Scotland for the occupation of the
fortress with the Earl of Middleton as governor, and
now the first Marquis of Argyll was brought from
the Tower of London and cast into a dungeon under
the very hall in which he had entertained Cromwell

and discussed the execution of Charles I. He had

148

DUNGEONS UNDER THE PARLIAMENT HALL

Page 148

The Story of Edinbu h Casf/t

forces in Themesst

at the Can ho happened to be a

Monk, who , ! him with cordiality. " H

comes it," he ;i$ked, "that you go in this direction.
and not as usual to the General at Dalkeith?"
"Rcv-mse ?m diapauses are for the Castle." The

something was wrong, and
proper,' rh<% should have \\ bottle together. The

servant stole the dis-
at once commenced

Army of Scotland, to

JJAH TW.MAMIIAS airr HacixiY mimOn with the.

-fT^vi r.astle guns. An old

refused to obey the

il blaw me into the

-if I do some

he was made by

vhich burst with

om him, and blew

rhe sichte of mony

1 66 1 a garrison

ccupation of the

cton as governor, arid

was brought from

.ast into a dungeon under

had entertained Cromwell

ussed the cx<xution of Charles I. He had

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

undergone his trial and had been condemned to death
for being a traitor.

He begged time in which he might pray to the King
for forgiveness--"! placed the Crown on his head,
and this is my reward," he said- -but this was
refused, and so his wife planned an escape. He was
lying in his dungeon pretending to be ill and his wife
came to pay him one of her last visits ; it had been
arranged that he was to change his dress for hers, but
at the last moment his courage failed him, where-

o '

upon the Marchioness broke down and wept, saying,
"The Lord will requite it." " I pity my enemies,"
he replied quietly, and a day or two after he was
beheaded by the Maiden.

A great plot for the capture of the Castle by the
Jacobites was discussed with Kerr of Kersland, a
Cameronian, who was believed to be a staunch sup-
porter of the party, but was in reality a Government
spy. The possession of the Castle was desirable not
only as a stronghold and arsenal, but also as the
depository of the " Equivalent ' ' that was to be paid
to Scotland by the terms of the Treaty of Union.
The money had just been put under the protection
of a small garrison, and the idea was to appropriate
it to the Pretender's exchequer. A few conspirators
were on a certain day to mix with the citizens who
daily crowded the esplanade, and one of the band
was to seek admission to the Castle on the pretext of

visiting an officer. On the lowering of the draw-

149

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

bridge he was to shoot the sentry at the gate, and
this was to be a signal not only to his companions in
the crowd, but also to a hundred men concealed in a
house at the head of the High Street, who were to
rush forth and seize the Castle. The traitor Kerr
hastened to London to inform the Duke of Queens-
berry, the chief of the Government; and lest his
journey south should be suspected by his Jacobite
friends, he returned to Edinburgh with all speed and
aided the Government in defeating the designs for
the plot, which was never carried out.
In 1 68 1 the new Marquis of Argyll was committed a
third time to the Castle for refusing to take the oath
required by the Test Act as Commissioner of the
Scottish Treasury, and on December 1 2, being found
guilty of " treason and leasing telling," he was
sentenced to death.

Precautions were taken to prevent rioting ; the guards
of the Castle were strengthened, and extra patrols
were mounted in the city. Argyll, like his father,
had decided on a plan of escape with the assistance of
his daughter-in-law, the Lady Sophia Lindsay, of
Balcarres. The story goes that she with her page
paid a visit to the State prison with the object of
bidding him a last farewell. Exchanging his own
costume for that of her attendant, he sallied forth
from his cell bearing her train aloft from the dirty
paving slabs, which were wet with the slush of a
previous snowstorm. He successfully managed to

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

evade his guards until the couple reached the outer
gate, when he was challenged by the sentry on guard,
which made him forget his duty of train-bearer,
whereby the silken robes of the Lady Lindsay were
allowed to drop in the mud ; with wonderful presence
of mind his companion lifted her bedraggled train and
threw it across the face of her seeming attendant with
the exclamation, " Thou careless loon ! ' The sentry,
highly amused at the punishment, and at the dirty face
of Argyll, allowed them to pass. Lady Lindsay
entered her coach, the Earl got on behind as flunkey,
and they rapidly drove away out of sight of the Castle,
and the Earl was able to make good his escape to
Holland. As for Lady Lindsay, she was arrested
when the authorities discovered what had transpired,
and was confined in the Tolbooth.
Four years later, the Earl returned to Scotland to take
part in an insurrection against King James ; but the
rebel force was hopelessly routed, and he had to fly
in the disguise of a bearded peasant. Near Paisley,
however, his identity was discovered ; he was bound
hand and foot and conducted back to Edinburgh,
where, preceded by the headsman, he was taken in
procession through the streets to his old quarters at
the Castle. He passed his last hours calmly, sleeping
and dining without showing signs that he feared his
coming execution. When one of the Privy Council
called he found Argyll gently asleep despite his
heavy manacles.

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

Argyll was led from the famous prison at the
Castle on June 30, 1685, and was taken to the
Market Cross, where he was confronted with the
instrument of death, and, going up to it, he touched
it with his lips, saying, " It is the sweetest maiden I
have ever kissed."

A clergyman in the crowd which awaited the execu-
tion called out, " My lord dies a Protestant?'1
" Yes," replied the Earl, " and not only a Protestant,
but with a heart hatred of Popery, Prelacy, and all
superstition." The brave nobleman then placed his
head under the knife, which had done duty at the
execution of his father, and died with great courage,
whilst his Countess and her family were kept prisoners
in the Castle.

During the Jacobite insurrection of 1715 a desperate
attempt was made for the capture of

'The steep, the iron-belted rock,
Where trusted lie the monarchy's last gems,
The see ft re, sword, and crown that graced the brows
Since Fergus, father of a hundred kings.

Lord Drummond, son of the Duke of Perth, was at
the head of the plotters -, but the carrying out of the
deed was entrusted to a Highland laird named
Drummond of Balhaldie, and a body of Highlanders
from Lord Drummond's estate, who were to make
the attempt on September 8.
They were joined by some Jacobites in Edinburgh,

'52

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

composed principally of students and young lawyers,
assisted by a Serjeant and some privates in the Castle
garrison, who had been secured by a young ensign
named Arthur.

The assailants were to attack that part of the Castle
which rises from the steep rock on the south-west,
near St. Cuthbert's Church, close to the postern gate.
The soldier who was to be on guard duty at the time
had agreed to drop from the rampart a rope, to which
a scaling ladder was to be fastened by the con-
spirators ; it was to be drawn up by the sentry and
the ladder fixed to the Castle wall for the ascent of
his accomplices. After the capture of the governor
and his garrison three shots were to be fired from the
Castle guns as a signal for the lighting of beacons
throughout Fife and the northern counties, so as
to convey the news to the Earl of Mar, who was
then to hasten forward with his army and take pos-
session of Edinburgh. The Jacobites did not fear
the deputy-governor, Lieutenant-Colonel Stuart, for
any prevention of their plot, for he was, according
to general belief, of doubtful loyalty.
Ensign Arthur had told his brother, a c doctor ' in
Edinburgh, of the plot under a pledge of secrecy, but
the doctor's evident unrest excited the curiosity of
his wife, who induced him to reveal the secret a few
hours before the event was to take place. She,
unfortunately for the Jacobites, was an adherent of
the house of Hanover, and at once sent an anonymous

u 153

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

letter to the Lord Justice Clerk, Sir Adam Cockburn,
who quickly forwarded the intelligence to the deputy-
governor of the Castle, just in time to be received
before the gates were closed for the night. Stuart, how-
ever, either disbelieved the information or was secretly
favourable toward the plot, for he took no pre-
caution further than to double his guards, after which
he retired for the night. Meantime the conspirators
had been spending the evening drinking in a neigh-
bouring tavern, and were nearly an hour beyond the
time appointed for setting out on their enterprise.
Meeting in St. Cuthbert's churchyard with a part of
their scaling ladder, they waited quietly in the darkness
for a confederate with the remainder, but he did not
put in an appearance. Angry and impatient, they
scrambled up the rock to the foot of the wall and
directed the sentry to pull up the rope to which
they had fastened the portion of the scaling ladder;
he did so, but, as they expected, it proved far
too short. At this critical moment the relieving
guard approached the spot under which the con-
spirators stood. The confederate sentry immediately
threw down the ladder and called out to the con-
spirators that their plot was foiled, firing his musket
with intent to hide his own treason. The Jacobites
fled for their lives under cover of darkness along the
banks of the north loch, but the City Guard, who
were patrolling the outside of the Castle walls by
order of the Lord Justice Clerk, arrested three of the

'54

ST. MARGARET'S CHAPEL

Page 154

Story c Ed;

letter to the L< rice Clerk, Sir Aci

who quickly forv i the intelligence to tl
governor of the '• .*vtle, just in time to be r
before the gate* closed for the night. Stuart,

the information or was sec
plot, for he took no p
>h- his guards, after wh
v.mtime the conspirat<

king-in a neigh-

an hour beyond the

their enterrise.

he darkness
nc ciiu not
Tfient thev
ic wall and

1*1

ing ladder;
proved far

e a it-s
darkness al
le City G
the Castle '•

ihe

psgr^1 ^

^-^^1^>fM-
^r^V'->-v-As

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

men, including a Captain McLean, an old Jacobite
officer, who was crippled by a serious fall whilst
descending the rock.

Stuart, the deputy-governor of the Castle, was
deprived of his office on suspicion of his implica-
tion in the plot, and the Serjeant of the guard, who
had betrayed his trust, was hanged on the Castle
wall; the other conspirators seem to have escaped
punishment.

Up to the time when James VII was made to forfeit
all claim to the Crown the committal of victims to
the dungeons and prisons of the Castle was a daily
occurrence, and they were treated with more or less
severity. Amongst the worst cases, perhaps, was the
treatment of Mr. William Spence, 'servitour' to the
lately executed Earl of Argyll. After undergoing the
torture of the ' boot,' Spence was placed under the
. charge of Sir Thomas Dalyell, an old Colonel of the
Scots Greys, by whom he was forced to wear a hair-
shirt, being thus kept from sleeping for five nights.
This torture was given him in the hope that he
would reveal the secret of certain ciphers which were
found amongst his master's papers. This failing, the
thumbscrew was applied again and again, without effect.
Then he was thrust back to the dungeons, where,
however, he eventually deciphered the messages, one
result of which was that William Carstairs, Principal
of the University and Moderator of the General
Assembly, was arrested and tortured in the Castle.

'55

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

With the news that William of Orange had landed in
England, times were to change in the history of the
venerable palace, prison, and fortress, and we shall find
it gradually approaching an era of peace.

156

CHAPTER IX : Bonnie Prince
Charlie

CHAPTER IX : Bonnie Prince
Charlie

f • "\HE news of the landing of William in 1688
withdrew from James VII the loyalty of the
-A. Scottish Presbyterians and magistrates of the
capital, who now, with the wildest enthusiasm, wel-
comed the invader. William and his Queen, Mary,
were proclaimed the rulers of Scotland by a few
representatives of an illegally constituted Convention
of the Estates, who set forth that King James had
forfeited all claim to the Throne. This was to open
a new chapter in the history of the Castle. The
Duke of Gordon, who had been entrusted with the
care of the fortress, finding the ancient city in the
hands of a drunken mob which had ransacked the
wine-cellars of Cavalier families, at once drew up
the drawbridge. He soon discovered that the
garrison was divided in its political opinions, and
fearing that a mutiny was imminent he held a
consultation with his officers, with the result that forty-
four of his soldiers were deprived of the King's
uniform and dismissed from the service, their places
being taken by double the number of Highlanders
loyal to the Stuarts. The Duke, being a Roman
Catholic, was suspected by the new regime and
requested by the Privy Council to surrender his
command in favour of a Protestant officer; but this
he refused to do, saying, "I am bound only to obey

'59

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

King James VII." Meantime, John Graham of
Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee, had pushed north,
and now reached Edinburgh with a remnant of Life
Guards and Scots Greys who had refused to join the
Scottish army in its revolt against James, and their
presence gave great encouragement to the Royalists.
Many bands of foot-soldiers from the surrounding
country joined the revolutionary party, and they were
reinforced by some six thousand Cameronians, who
marched into the city bearing standards on which
was displayed an open Bible surmounted by the
words, "For Reformation according to the Word of
God." This great military display demoralized a
section of the garrison, and the Duke of Gordon
found himself in difficulties in dealing with them.
"Bonnie Dundee" and other Royalists fled from the
city with his band of troopers on hearing that William
of Orange and his party had planned his assassination.
The Duke of Gordon, from the ramparts of the
Castle, followed their flight through his telescope
as they galloped round the old church of the Holy
Trinity and amongst the fields on the north side of
the Castle rock. Gordon had fixed a red flag on
the ancient postern as a sign that he wished to have
a conference with the departing Viscount ; on seeing
this Dundee rode down the Kirk Brae, and, dis-
mounting from his horse, scrambled up the rugged
rock to the famous postern, now marked by a
memorial tablet, where he entreated the beleaguered

1 60

THE FAMOUS POSTERN WHERE "BONNIE
DUNDEE" CONFERRED WITH THE DUKE

OF GORDON

• ' ~'-'~-''"-r,'~- ' .

Page 1 60

The Story of Edinbu * Castle

King James VII." Meantime, of

Claverhouse, Vis -t. Dundee, had push'.-. -th,
and now reached Edinburgh with a remnant ;fe

( iuards and Scot*. Greys who had refused t<
Scottish army in evolt against James, an*.

ouragement to the Roya
kliers from the surroundii

HI; -itionary party, and they wt

housand Cameronians, who

.•ll/./.OH " .iXHliV/ /IMiTgOq. 8UOMAH 4HTj

•MM -HIT my/ u;jflk3$iB& •^issffaad!

-,^' surmounted by
vordinj> to the Word

.Al -.;*l\

Duke of Gordon

tailing with them.
Uovalists fled from the

iUK-J his assassination.

ramparts of the

•ough his telescope

v church of the H<

oi; the north side

jfcflc Kid hxcd a red fla,

K^c ion that he wished to

with tin departing Viscount ; on seeing
rode down the Kirk Brae, and, dis-
mount! from' his horse, scrambled up the TUPP

i

famous postern, now marked bv

mcmonai tablet, where he entreated the beleagi

160

" ^••^yy^'-^o'^s-

:" "•

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

Duke of Gordon to come with him and raise the
Highland clans for King James. To this suggestion
Gordon would not listen, preferring rather to hold the
Castle at all costs. As Dundee was about to retire
the Duke asked him, "Whither go you?" "Wher-
ever the shade of Montrose may direct me," was the
pensive and poetic reply, and Dundee clambered down
the rocks to rejoin his troopers after bidding farewell to

the Duke, whom he was never to meet again.

. ^

The Earl of Lothian and Marquis of Tweeddale now
appeared at the gate of the Castle and, in the name of
the Estates, demanded its surrender within the space
of twenty-four hours; they also tried to induce the
garrison to join the revolutionaries by the bribe of
twelve months' pay for each soldier. " My Lords,"
said Gordon, " without the express orders of my royal
master, King James VII, I cannot surrender the Castle,"
whereupon the Duke was publicly proclaimed a traitor
and outlaw, to which he scornfully replied, throwing
the men some guinea pieces to drink the King's health,
"I would advise you not to proclaim men traitors who
wear the King's coat till they have turned it."
The Earl of Leven was ordered to blockade the Castle
with his Cameronians and three hundred Highlanders,
under the command of the Marquis of Argyll. It is
interesting to note that from these warriors two
famous Scottish regiments were raised in the short
space of twenty-four hours. One was called the
25th or " Edinburgh Regiment," known to-day as the

161

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

2, 5th King's Own Scottish Borderers, which bears on
its colours the triple castle with the city motto, Nisi
Dominus frustra ; and the other the 2.6th Camer-
onians, or, as they are more familiarly known, "The
Cameronians" (Scottish Rifles).

The siege was pressed with all fury, and the defenders
of the Castle were further reduced by the discharge of
some eighty of the rank and file whose loyalty to
James could not be depended upon. There were now
only some eighty or ninety men left, including officers
and volunteers. Barricades were thrown up behind
the gates, and the gallant Gordon prepared for a
stubborn defence, although he had written to James
in Ireland that he could not hold out longer than six
months without relief. The little garrison had to
work twenty-two guns, and their ammunition, it
appears, only amounted to thirty barrels of gun-
powder.

The whole rock was now surrounded by the besieg-
ing army, to which had been added three battalions
of the highly trained Scots Brigade under General
Hugh Mackay of Scoury, with a brigade of artillery,
who brought with them a great quantity of wool-
packs, which they used to form breastworks. Mackay
planted batteries in various parts of Edinburgh com-
manding the Castle. From High Riggs he raked the
royal palace and the Half-Moon Battery with his
eighteen-pounders, from a site on which now stands
the Register House he replied to the guns from the

162

I 7s he Story of Edinburgh Castle

King's Bastion, and from a point to the west of
Heriot's Hospital his mortars blazed with deadly
precision. A breach was made in the western wall,
but the precipitous rock at this point made an assault
impracticable. Mackay's bombs exploded with con-
tinuous fury within the walls of the fortress, and
by April it hardly seemed possible for the Royalists
to hold out much longer. The roofs of nearly
every building had been torn off, the water-supply
was at a low ebb ; but, as if sent by Providence, snow
fell to a considerable depth, and was immediately stored
to quench the thirst of those who stood so loyally
to their guns.

The Duke of Gordon now gave up all hope of relief
from the King he was so bravely fighting for. In
the uniform of an officer of James VII, and wearing
the Order of the Thistle, he held a parley with Major
Somerville, who represented the Earl of Leven. It
was not found possible, however, to arrange satisfactory
terms, and so the bombardment recommenced with
greater fury. A continuous cannonade was kept up
on both sides for twenty-four hours, at a great cost
of life to the Jacobite soldiers. The handful of
defenders had subsisted for ten days on dry bread
and salt herrings, eaten raw, the only food now
remaining. Their ammunition was coming to an
end, and it had become a physical impossibility to
hold out longer. Accordingly, on June 13 Gordon

lowered the King's colour that he had so bravely kept

163

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

flying on the tower of the Royal Palace for six months,
and the gallant little band surrendered their stronghold
on condition that the Royalist soldiers should enjoy
their full liberty, and that Colonel Winram, a perse-
cutor of the Covenanters, should have security for his
life along with his estates.

The Duke assembled the remnant of his followers,
called the roll, and handed to each a small sum
of money, after which the men marched through
the gates, a bedraggled, half-starved, ragged group
numbering fifty all told. They suffered shamefully
at the hands of the mob, having to fight their way to
the city gates before making good their escape. The
Duke was arrested, but soon after was given his free-
dom on promising not to lift arms against William
of Orange. This was the last occasion on which

o

Edinburgh Castle was held by the Jacobites.
During the siege the buildings had suffered severely;
in fact, scarcely any had escaped the fire of Mackay's
guns and mortars. The work of restoration was,
therefore, a serious matter, but it was now taken in
hand under the supervision of John Drury, chief of
the Scottish Engineers. The work when completed
left the Castle ramparts practically as we see them
to-day.

A curious story is told in a note to Law's Memo-
rials of an apparition which is supposed to have
been seen at this time. The Earl of Balcarres was

lying as a prisoner in the Castle, when from his bed he

164

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

became aware of the presence of the apparent figure
of Claverhouse. After looking sorrowfully at the
Earl, the spectre strode slowly from the chamber
without a word. Lord Balcarres, in great surprise,
not suspecting that what he saw was an apparition,
called out repeatedly to his friend to stop, but
received no answer, and subsequently learned that
at the very moment when the shadow stood before
him Dundee had breathed his last near the field
of Killiecrankie.

The next and perhaps not the least interesting episode
in the story of the Castle took place in 1745, with
the advent of the romantic " Young Pretender," Prince
Charles Edward Stuart, " Bonnie Prince Charlie," in
his endeavour to regain the Crown that was so
hopelessly lost to the Stuarts when William of
Orange came over.

Prince Charlie, after his first arrival in the Highlands,
had marched south with his following of clansmen,
who now flocked round him in great numbers, and
finally reached Edinburgh, where he proceeded to the
old Palace of Holy rood.

When about to enter the historic royal dwelling a
cannon-ball fired from the Castle struck James the
Fifth's Tower, not a very pleasant reception for the
young Prince, who, however, entered the outer gate
without betraying alarm. James Hepburn of Keith,
a staunch Jacobite who had taken part in the rebellion

of 1715, came forward from the crowd, bent his knee

165

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

in token of homage, then, drawing his sword and raising
it aloft, he marshalled the way before Charles upstairs.
Meanwhile, the citizens of Edinburgh were in a state
of great excitement and perturbation. The Castle,
situated on its inaccessible rock, and held by a
sufficient garrison, was quite secure ; but the city
was protected on the south and east only by the old
wall, hastily erected after the battle of Flodden, by
the Nor' Loch on the north side, and by some slight
fortifications. The wall was from ten to twenty feet
in height and was embattled, but the parapet was too
narrow for mounting cannon, and was in various places
overlooked by lines of lofty houses, only a few feet
distant, so that it afforded little protection to the city.
The Lord Provost, Archibald Stewart, a well-known
Jacobite, was afterward brought to trial for neglect of
duty in this emergency. He certainly was not hearty
in taking or countenancing measures for the defence
of the capital, and his reluctance to assist in the pre-
parations which were made to resist the attacks of the
Highlanders is said to have been due to his desire to
thwart his burgh rivals, who, under the leadership of
ex- Provost Drummond, were zealous in their efforts
to defend the town, rather than to the lack of means
at the disposal of the authorities, utterly inadequate
for that purpose as these were. The only trustworthy
force in the city, in addition to two regiments of
dragoons, consisted of the veteran soldiers of the
Town Guard, about one hundred and twenty in

1 66

WALLACE'S CRADLE AND THE WELL-HOUSE

Page 1 66

The Story oj in burgh Cast

in token of homage, then, drawing his sword and raising

it aloft, he marshalled the way before Charles upstairs.

Meanwhile, the citizens of Edinburgh were in a state

great excitement and perturbation. The Castle,

•situated on its inaccessible rock, and held by a

.mvient garrison, was quite secure ^ but the city

>uth and east only by the old

the battle of Flodden, by

h side, and by some slight

from ten to twenty feet

M^KiH-.Li/tv/ >IHT <!/!/, HaU/^U:/ ^£^i&y&pet was too

^j v«rt vas in various places

s, only a few feet

protection to the city.

wart, a well-known

Tri.il for neglect of

\\as not hearty

for the defence

to insist in the pre-

ihe attacks of the

to his desire to

u'.;>h nailer the leadership of

Dn.nr.iv , ms in their efforts

than to the lack of means
posal of uthorities, utterly inadequate

The only trustworthy

the city, in addition to two regiments of

uis, consisted of the veteran soldiers of the

Guard, about one hundred and twenty in

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

number. There was, indeed, a numerous body of
militia, called Trained Bands, divided into sixteen
companies, and numbering upward of a thousand
men, but they were entirely undisciplined, and not a
few of the men were known to be friendly to the
Jacobite cause.

Toward the end of August 1745 t^le more zealous
citizens had proposed to raise a regiment of a thousand
men for the defence of the town, the cost to be met
by voluntary subscription ; and the professors of the
University and the clergy, who were warmly attached
to the Government, made liberal offers of money for
that purpose. But the royal permission was not
obtained till September 9, and up to the time of
Prince Charlie's arrival in the vicinity of the capital
only two hundred men had been embodied, and these
were for the most part persons of dissolute character
who were tempted to enlist merely by the promise of
pay. In addition to this force, which was designated
the Edinburgh Regiment, about four hundred of the
inhabitants formed themselves into a separate band or
association, and were supplied with arms from the
Castle. They were divided into six companies,
officers were appointed to command them, and they
were regularly drilled twice a day. Several old pieces
of cannon were placed on the walls, chiefly obtained
from the shipping at Leith, and the various gates of
the city were strongly barricaded. Many of the

volunteers were doubtless gallant young men, students

167

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

from the University and so forth, but by far the
greater part were citizens of ages unfit for arms, and
without previous habit and experience. They had,
therefore, no great stomach, even from the first, for
the dangers of an encounter with stalwart Highland
warriors, and on the near approach of the insurgent
army their show of zeal and valour very speedily
disappeared.

When intelligence was received that the van of the
rebel army had reached the village of Kirkliston, a
few miles to the west of the city, it was proposed that
the two regiments of dragoons, supported by the Town
Guard, the Edinburgh Regiment, and the volunteers,
should march out and give battle to the enemy. This
proposal was agreed to by the Provost, who placed
ninety of the Town Guard at the disposal of General
Guest, and about two hundred and fifty of the
volunteers pledged themselves to march out with the
dragoons. The appointed signal for their assembling
was the ringing of the fire-bell, and its ominous sound
was heard on the forenoon of the Sabbath, the
1 5th, during divine service; but, "instead of rousing
the hearts of the volunteers like the sound of a
trumpet, it rather reminded them of a passing knell.5'
The churches were immediately emptied, and the in-
habitants in a state of great excitement poured out
into the High Street, where they found the volunteers
drawn up in the Lawn Market, preparatory to march-
ing against the Highlanders. Immediately after,

168

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

Hamilton's Dragoons, who had been summoned from
Leith, rode up the street on their way to Corstorphine,
and were welcomed with loud huzzas. At sight of
the volunteers they in turn shouted and clashed their
swords against each other. The volunteers now
prepared to march, but their mothers, wives, and other
female relatives and friends, clinging to them, implored
them with tears and cries not to risk their lives in an
encounter with savage Highland men. At the word
of command, however, they began to march up the
Lawn Market, led by their captain, ex- Provost
Drummond ; but the scene they had just witnessed
had not tended to animate their drooping courage :
some lagged behind, some stood still in the street, some
stepped aside into closes or courts, and some bolted
into houses whose doors stood temptingly open. In
descending the famous West Bow they disappeared
by scores into doorways or down wynds, until their
commander, halting at the West Port and looking
behind him, found to his surprise and mortification
that nearly the whole of his valiant followers had
disappeared and that only a few of his personal
friends remained.

Throughout the whole of Monday the capital was in
a state of great agitation. Early in the day a message
from the Prince was delivered to the citizens by a
person named Alves, requiring them to submit, and
threatening severe measures if they ventured to resist.
The next day the dragoons got into touch with

Y 169

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

Charles' vanguard at Coltbridge, but fled at once,
whereupon crowds of the inhabitants collected in the
streets and clamoured loudly for the surrender of the
city. At four o'clock in the afternoon the Provost
called a meeting of the magistrates to consider what
should be done. The officers of the Crown were
invited to attend and give their advice, but it was
found that they had prudently withdrawn from the
city. A large number of unauthorized persons
crowded into the chamber where the Provost and
magistrates were assembled, so that it was found
necessary to adjourn to the New Church aisle, where
the question " Defend or not defend the town ? " was
put. The meeting was exceedingly noisy and tumul-
tuous, and whilst the excitement was at its height, the
great majority clamorous for surrender, a letter was
handed in from the Prince demanding that the city
should be given up, and promising that the property
of the citizens should be protected and their rights
and liberties preserved. The perusal of this letter
finally decided the meeting in favour of a capitulation,
and deputies were immediately appointed to wait on the
Prince with instructions to solicit time for deliberation.
Meanwhile, the volunteers were drawn up in the
streets in readiness to obey any orders that might be
given them, when a gentleman, whose person was not
recognized, rode up the West Bow on a grey horse,
and, passing rapidly along the front of their line, cried

out that he had just seen the Highlanders and that

170

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

they were sixteen thousand strong. This announce-
ment completed the dismay of the disheartened volun-
teers, who immediately marched to the Castle and
delivered up their arms to General Guest, the
governor. The other bodies of militia that had
received arms from the Castle magazine speedily
followed their example, so that, although the Trained
Bands still continued to man the walls, all hope of
resistance was now virtually laid aside. Early the
next morning Cameron of Lochiel succeeded in
gaining entrance to the city through the Netherbow,
and by dawn his men were in possession of all the
city gates.

At the battle of Prestonpans, on September 20,
Charles was successful in routing Cope's cavalry,
who fled for refuge to the Castle of Edinburgh.
The account runs : " When all arrangements had
been completed, Charles addressed his men in these
words : ' Follow me, gentlemen, and by the blessing
of God I will this day make you a free and
happy people.' He had expressed a wish to
lead the charge, but in compliance with the urgent
request of the chiefs he consented to take a position
between the two lines, in the midst of a small guard.
The morning had now fully dawned, and the beams of
the rising sun were beginning to illuminate the waters
and estuary on their right ; but the mist was still
rolling in huge masses over the morass on the left

and the cornfields in front, so as to hide the armies

171

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

from each other. Everything being now in readiness,
the order to advance was given. A brief and solemn
pause ensued, during which the clansmen took off
their bonnets, raised their faces to heaven, and uttered
a short prayer; then, pulling their bonnets over their
brows and throwing aside their plaids, they began
their charge. They advanced in silence, at first
slowly, but as they proceeded they quickened their
pace, and moved with such rapidity that they had to
halt once or twice to recover their broken ranks before
closing with the enemy. At this moment the mist
rose like a curtain and showed the royal troops, and
the dark masses of the clans rushing on to the attack.
With a tremendous yell the Highlanders threw them-
selves with irresistible impetuosity upon the glittering
ranks of their enemy. The first squadron of dragoons
was ordered to attack them ; but on receiving an
irregular fire from the Highlanders' fusees they were
seized with a disgraceful panic, and, wheeling about,
rode over the artillery guard and galloped from the
field.

The second squadron, under Colonel Gardiner, was
then led forward to the attack by the gallant veteran
himself, who encouraged his men to be firm ; but
they had not advanced many paces when they too
wavered, halted, and then followed the first squadron
in their flight.
Hamilton's Dragoons behaved even worse than

Gardiner's, for no sooner did they perceive the flight

172

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

of their comrades than they turned and galloped off
the field in confusion without striking a blow. A
desperate effort was made by Cope and other officers
to rally the dragoons, and by dint of threats and
entreaties and by presenting pistols at the men's
heads they succeeded in turning about four hundred
into a field, whence they endeavoured to lead them
back to the charge. But the terror of the soldiers
was too deep-rooted ; the accidental firing of a pistol
renewed their panic, and they went off at full gallop
to Edinburgh, and through the High Street, gaining
the Castle with great confusion and uproar. General
Preston, however, who was again in command of the
fortress, having taken it over from General Guest, who,
it is said, regarded the place as indefensible and had
recommended its surrender, ordered them to be gone
or he would open his guns upon them for cowards
and deserters. Terrified by this threat, the runaways
turned their horses down the Castle Wynd and
pursued their flight to Stirling.

The Highlanders entered Edinburgh a few hours after
the battle, playing their pipes and displaying in triumph
the colours they had taken from the dragoons. Next
day the main body marched through the principal
streets of the capital, exhibiting their prisoners and
spoil, amid the joyous acclamations of the multitude,
while the pibrochs played the Jacobite tune, " The
King shall enjoy his own again." The Highlanders
in their excitement fired their pieces in the air,

'73

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

and one of them being loaded with ball, a bullet
grazed the forehead of Miss Nairne, a young Jacobite
lady who was waving her handkerchief from a balcony-
overlooking the Castle Hill. " Thank God," ex-
claimed the fair enthusiast, as soon as she was able
to speak, " the accident has happened to me, whose
principles are known. Had it befallen a Whig, they
would have said it was done on purpose."
The great contrast in the methods of Charles and
Cromwell in housing prisoners is to be found in a letter
which the Prince sent to his father the night after the
battle: "I am in great difficulties how I shall dispose
of my wounded prisoners. If I make a hospital of
the church it will be looked upon as a great profana-
tion. Come what will, I am resolved not to let the
poor wounded men lie in the streets, and if I do no
better, I will make a hospital of the palace, and leave
it to them." The wounded that were brought to
Edinburgh were placed in the Royal Infirmary.
One of the Whig officers broke his parole and
escaped into the Castle and the rest were sent to Perth.
On their recovery the wounded were all released on
taking oath not to serve against the Prince for twelve
months, an engagement which it is believed many of
them violated. The number of prisoners was between
sixteen and seventeen hundred. The Highlanders
did not realize the value of their booty. One of them
who had got a watch which had belonged to an
English officer sold it for a trifle, observing that he was

'74

THE HIGHLANDERS MARCH UP THE
HIGH STREET

MONRO S. ORK
Page 174

rg t

mt ; > ided with ball, a bul
d of Miss Nairne, a young Jacobite
vaving her handkerchief from a balcony
okino the Castle Hill. "Thank God," ex-
\,ur enthusiast, as soon as she was able
accident has happened to me, whose
Had it befallen a Whig, they
:\N done on purpose."
;n the methods of Charles and

U IT

fat er the night after the
iks how I shall dispose

>1«O .'. <VA /,)[/; . 1

i make a hospital or

iT> ^^ r

u|.r as a great prorana-
•olvcd not to let the
-.ircct.^ and if I do no
•.jViU! of ibt palace, and leave
v ^ii.Jt-J !hur were brought to
t > \oval Infirmary.

his parole and
ent to Perth.

wounded VM all released on
: vc against t'u Prince for twelve
nt which it is believed many of
: number of prisoners was between
vcii hundred. The Highlanders
alue of their booty. One of them
u-atch which had belonged to an
it for a trifle, observing that he was

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

" glad to be rid of the creature, for she had lived no
time after he had catched her ' -the watch had really
stopped for want of winding up. Another exchanged
a horse for a pistol, and several were seen carrying:

1 J O

large military saddles upon their backs, which they
took back with other spoils to their homes. Charles
on his entry into Edinburgh wore a short tartan coat,
with a star of the national order of St. Andrew, a
blue velvet bonnet with a white satin cockade, a blue
sash over his shoulder, small clothes of red velvet,
and a pair of military boots. His appearance was
greeted with loud acclamations by the country people,
who crowded around him whenever he went abroad, and
eagerly sought to kiss his hand and touch his clothes.
Charles, having succeeded in winning the hearts of
the citizens to some extent by his personal charm,
now blockaded the Castle, because his Highland
Guards stationed at the Weigh House were being
annoyed by the fire from its batteries. The
governor immediately dispatched a letter to the
Lord Provost protesting against the blockade, and
intimated that if it were not removed he would fire
on the Highland Guards. This threat caused great
consternation amongst the citizens, who would have
suffered great loss in the event of a bombardment.
Prince Charlie returned an answer to the governor in
which he expressed his surprise at such a threat, and
assured the people that if any injury should be
inflicted on the city he would indemnify them for

'75

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

their losses. It is said that the Prince intimated to
General Preston that the house of his elder brother at
Valleyfield, on the shores of Fife, would be destroyed
if he ventured to fire on the city, and that the stout
veteran received the threat with scorn, declaring that
if Valleyfield were injured the English vessels of war
would, in revenge, burn down Wemyss Castle, the
property of the Earl of Wemyss, whose eldest son,
Lord Elcho, was in the Jacobite camp. Eventually
hostilities were suspended until the return of an order
from London, with a proviso that the Castle was not
in the meantime to be attacked by the forces of the
Pretender.

But owing to some misunderstanding, on the following
day the Highlanders fired on some people who were
carrying provisions to the Castle, in consequence of
which the governor considered himself justified in
returning the fire. Prince Charlie now decided to
retaliate by blockading the fortress, and all com-
munications were cut off between the citizens and the
garrison under the heaviest penalties ; the garrison,
however, in revenge fired at all the Highlanders they
could see.

On October 4 the city was exposed to a heavy fire
from the Castle batteries, which was kept up through-
out the day until dusk. Under cover of darkness
the garrison then made a sally for the purpose of
demolishing some houses near the gates that had

been deserted during the day. A deep trench was

176

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

dug across the Castle hill, wherein were placed several
pieces of ordnance which commanded the Lawn
Market and High Street. Their fire unfortunately
killed and wounded a number of peaceful citizens as
well as the Jacobites. Next day the bombardment
recommenced with great fury, causing panic among
the inhabitants, who hurried out of the city in much
confusion, carrying their children and valuable effects,
besides assisting their aged relatives to places of safety
beyond the Flodden Wall. A strong appeal was
made to the Prince to remove the blockade, and out
of pity for the citizens he yielded. The garrison
then ceased its bombardment of the town, and provi-
sions were allowed to pass freely into the fortress.
In commemoration of the event a ball was given at
the palace, which had long been deserted, by the
royal Stuarts, and was attended by all the Jacobite
ladies, who were charmed by the manners of the
youthful aspirant to the Throne.
The citizens suffered greatly from bands of robbers,
who took advantage of the period when the courts of
law were suspended and the authority of the magistrates
had not yet been restored. Wearing white cockades
and the Highland dress, they demanded money and
property from the people. The chief was " Daddie '
Ratcliff, a notorious villain, who plays an important
part as one of the characters in Sir Walter Scott's novel
The Heart of ^Midlothian?

1 There is, however, some reason to doubt whether Ratcliff was connected
with these ruffians.

z 177

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

Charles, although he dealt with these miscreants
severely and made every effort to restore the stolen
property, was to some extent to blame, for the
offences were mostly perpetrated by those who had
been liberated from the public jails, which had been
thrown open by the Jacobites. The Prince decided to
quit Edinburgh and move his army across the border.
He had already issued a proclamation on October 3
which ran : " I have, I confess, the greatest reason to
adore the goodness of Almighty God, Who has in so
remarkable a manner protected me and my small army
through the many dangers to which we were at first
exposed, and Who has led me in the way to victory,
and to the capital of this ancient kingdom, amidst the
acclamations of the King my father's subjects." Some
difficulty was found in raising for him a regiment
from the surrounding country, as the people were not
keen on adventure with some doubt of success.
" For my part," said a canny Scot, " I'm clear for
being on the same side as the hangman. I'll stay till
I see what side he's to take and then I'll decide."
But for all this the Prince was receiving almost daily
reinforcements from the North, where the strength of
the Jacobite cause lay. On the evening of October 3 1
Prince Charlie had completed the preparations for his
departure, and he left Edinburgh never to return.
He advanced into England as far as Derby, but found
insufficient support and retreated northward, until at

Culloden, on April 1 6, 1 746, his troops were defeated

178

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

and scattered, and he himself became a fugitive in the
western Highlands. The faithful Highlanders never
once wavered in their loyalty in the five months or
more of his wanderings. He was chased like "the
red deer driven along its native heights," ofttime
ragged and torn, exposed to hunger and thirst, but
in spite of the great price put on his head by the
Government the fidelity of the clansmen never for a
moment failed. The clever help rendered to him by
Flora Macdonald at a time of supreme danger is too
well known to need more than mention.
Finally he was guided to his faithful adherents Cluny
Macpherson and Cameron of Lochiel, who were in
hiding in a romantic retreat called the Cage, which
had been constructed by Cluny at the base of a
craggy, precipitous rock overlooking Loch Ericht.
This habitation was capable of accommodating six
people, and was concealed by a thicket, and being
supported by a large fir springing from amidst the
rocks it somewhat resembled a great bird-cage. In
this last hiding-place Prince Charlie waited patiently
for an opportunity of escape, and at last two French
vessels arrived at the point where fourteen months
before he had secured a landing. Two days after
the news reached him, Charles, journeying secretly at
night, embarked on board L? Heureux, accompanied
by Lochiel, Colonel Roy Stuart, and about a hundred
other friends, who were also glad to seek safety on a
foreign shore. Concealed by a fog, the two vessels

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

passed safely through the middle of the English fleet,
and arrived eventually near Morlaix, on the coast of
Brittany.

A romantic story is told concerning the Prince when
in hiding. It is said that a Jacobite officer named
Mackenzie, having fallen into the hands of the
soldiers, was shot by them, and when dying exclaimed :
" You have slain your Prince ! ' with the view of
aiding Charles' escape.

Some of the most beautiful of Scotland's plaintive
songs commemorate the heroism and trials of
c Bonnie Prince Charlie,' when roaming a lonely
" stranger o'er hills that were by right his ain." In
one the Jacobite mother declares that had she ten sons
she " would give them all to Charlie." In another
the maiden protests that if she were a man, like her
brothers, she " would follow him too," and many
others breathe a longing for the return of the Stuarts
in such lines as, " Come o'er the stream, Charlie,"
and " The Stuarts shall enjoy their ain again."

180

CHAPTER X : The Story of the
Regalia

CHAPTER X : The Story of the
Regalia

ON December 14, 1714, the Castle was deprived
of the ecclesiastical right of sanctuary, which
had existed from the time of David in 1 1 28,
when he established his first order of monks within
its walls.

By a decree of the Court of Session debtors were
no longer allowed to seek its shelter, and thus the
privilege they had enjoyed for centuries came to an
end.

After the ' Young Pretender's ' hopeless attempt to
bring General Preston and his garrison to their knees
and to recover the Crown of Bruce, the story of the
Castle becomes less mixed with romance and tragedy
as the times become more peaceful.
Having successfully suppressed the Jacobite rebellion,
the Government turned its attention to the punish-
ment of the supporters who had fallen into its hands,
and so we find the dungeons and State prisons
of the Castle occupied by a continual stream of
unfortunate adherents to the Jacobite cause. Notable
amongst these was, perhaps, an English gentleman
named Henry Payne, who was cruelly tortured by
instruction of the righteous King William through
his Solicitor-General saying : " There is no doubt
that he knows as much as would hang a thousand ;
but except you put him to torture he will shame you

'83

"The Story of Edinburgh Castle

all. Pray you put him in such hands as will have
no pity on him." After shameful torture the un-
fortunate man was flung into one of the dungeons
in solitary confinement, where he spent a miserable
ten years, despite appeals for mercy and a fair trial to
the 'pious King William.' But he was not the only
Jacobite who suffered extreme severity. The Duchess
of Perth and her daughters were treated with disgust-
ing brutality in one of those horrible vaults for no
other reason than that the Duke had fought and was
slain at the head of his men at Culloden. These
poor ladies were refused a female attendant and put
into the humiliating position of being under the
constant supervision of the guard. Lady Ogilvie was
also imprisoned in the Castle because of her sympathy
with 'Prince Charlie,' but she was fortunate enough
to make her escape disguised as a laundry-maid.
About the same time a namesake of Lady Ogilvie's
lost his life in endeavouring to escape down the rocks
on the south side, and his son, an officer who had
fought with the Prince at Carlisle, was hanged and
mutilated with horrible barbarity on Kennington
Common.

The last person who was tried and executed for the
rebellion was the famous Lord Lovat. He had
cunningly kept in the background, and had not only
abstained from any overt act, but had even affected
zeal for the royal cause. He would most probably

have escaped punishment had not Lord Murray of

184

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

Broughton, secretary to Charles, consulted his own
safety by becoming King's evidence. The letters of
Lovat to Charles, produced by Murray at the trial, and
the convincing evidence of his own clansmen, fully
established his guilt, and he was condemned after a trial
which lasted ten days. When his sentence was pro-
nounced he said : " Farewell, my lords. We shall not
all meet again in the same place- -I am sure of that."
During the short interval between his conviction and
the execution he showed at first great anxiety to secure
a pardon, but this being impossible he displayed the
utmost insensibility to his position ; he conversed in the
most cheerful manner with his friends, and spoke of
his approaching execution almost with levity. He
met his fate with great composure, and though in the
eightieth year of his age, and so infirm that he sought
the assistance of two persons in mounting the steps of
the scaffold, his spirits never flagged. Turning to
the great crowd, he said with a sneer: "God save us !
why should there be such a bustle about taking off
an old grey head from a man who cannot get up
three steps without two assistants?" Having spent
a little time in devotions, he repeated the line of
Horace, T^ulce et decorum est pro patria mori, and,
laying his head upon the block, received the fatal
blow with great courage, leaving, as Scott remarks,
" a strong example of the truth of the observation,
that it is easier to die well than to live well."
Following the Jacobites of the rebellion, the only

2 A 185

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

prisoners incarcerated in the dungeons of the Castle
were captives of the French wars, for whom the
fortress continued to be used as a prison almost up
to the days of Waterloo. One event of importance
remains to be chronicled- -the dramatic finding of
the Regalia after they had lain hidden for a hundred
and ten years.

After the battle of Dunbar, 1650, the Scottish
Regalia were taken for safety from the Castle of
Edinburgh, and after the coronation of Charles II at
Scone they were deposited in Dunnottar Castle, on
the coast of Kincardineshire, with the idea that
Charles II should send a boat and convey them to
France. The Order of the Parliament is in the
following words: "[June 6, 1651.] Instrumentis
taken be the Erie Mareschal upoun the production
of the honouris, with his dessyre represented to the
Parliament, that the same might be putt in sum pairt
of securitie ; his Majesty and Parliament ordanes the
said Erie Mareschal to cause transport the saidis
honouris to the hous of Dunnottar, thair to be keepit
by him till furthur ordouris."

For the protection of the castle of Dunnottar a
garrison was placed there on July 8, 1651, under the
immediate command of George Ogilvy of Barras, an
experienced soldier, who held a commission from the
Earl Mareschal to be Lieutenant-Governor of the castle.
Some royal artillery was furnished at the same time.
It became, however, too obvious, from the daily

186

THE RUINS OF THE WELL-HOUSE TOWER

Pagf iS6

mi

were captives :ru I , for whom

fortress continued to be used as a prison almost
to the Waterloo. One event of importam

chronicled- -the dramatic finding <
After the had lain hidden for a hundr-

'unbar, 1650, the Scottish

safety from the Castle of

coronation of Charles II at

i .1 .( mottar Castle, on

i i v/r < Hfirj6i-itia3'v»aH!r!yi*ct'^WR:l'¥H|he idea that

;^,u^\. hoat and convey them to

Parliament is in the

Instrumentis

,:n the production

represented to the

putt in sum pairt

lament ordanes the

'.< sport the saidis

iar, thair to be keepit

castle of Dunnottar
here on July 8, 1651, under tl
of George Ogilvy of Barras,
ho held a commission from thjt
.Mfcutenant-Governor of the Cii
artillen tarnished at the same ti
however, obvious, from th>

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

successes of the English, that sooner or later Dun-
nottar Castle, which was now besieged, must be
surrendered. Ogilvy was pressed by the Committee
of Estates to deliver up the Regalia in order that
they might be sent to some distant castle in the
Highlands. The Lieutenant-Governor did not con-
ceive these instructions to be so worded as to authorize
his compliance, or to relieve him of the responsibility
which this important charge imposed on him ; he
therefore refused compliance, and applied to the Earl
of Loudoun, Lord High Chancellor of Scotland, for
instructions in so pressing an emergency. The reply
of the Chancellor was in these terms : " I conceive
that the trust committed to you, and the safe custody
of the thingis under your charge did require that
victual, a competent number of honest and stout
sojers, and all other necessaries, should have been
provided and put in the castle before you had been in
any hazard } and if you be in good condition, or that
you can timely supply yourself with necessaries, and
that the place be tenable against all attempts of the
enemie, I doubt not but you will hold out. But if
you want provisions, sojers, and ammunition, and
cannot hold out at the assaults of the enemie, which
is feared and thought you cannot doe if you be
hardlye persued, I know no better expedient than that
the Honours of the Crowne be speedilye and saiflie
transported to some remote and strong castle or hold

in the Highlands, and I wish you had delivered them

187

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

to the Lord Balcarras as was desired by the Com-
mittee of Estates j nor doe I know any better way
for the preservation of these thingis, and your exone-
ration ; and it will be an irreparable loss and shame
if these thingis shall be taken by the enemie, and verie
dishonourable for yourself. So having given you the
best advice I can at present, I trust you will, with all
care and faithfulness, be answerable according to the
trust committed to you."

The urgent necessities of the moment brought forth
a woman whose ingenuity was the means of saving
the precious treasures. This person was the wife of
the Rev. James Granger, the minister of KinnefF
Church, some five miles from Dunnottar. She
received permission from the English general to pay
a visit to the governor's lady. The secret of
smuggling out the Regalia was successfully kept to
herself and the governor's wife, and the governor
himself was not allowed to know what was done, that
he might be able to declare with truth his ignorance
of the whereabouts of the treasure.
Mrs. Granger took the Crown in her lap. The
English general helped her on to the horse which
she had left below, the castle rock being too steep to
approach on the saddle, and her servant followed on
foot carrying the Sword and Sceptre concealed in
bundles of lint which she pretended were to be spun
into thread. Passing through the English lines
without the slightest suspicion, she eventually arrived

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

at KinnefF, and placed the valuables in the charge of
her husband, who handed to the governor's wife this
authentic statement as to the secret place in which
they were deposited: "March 3ist, 1652: I, Mr.
James Granger, minister at KinnefT, grant me to have
in my custody the Honours of the Kingdom, viz.,
The Crown, Sceptre and Sword. For the Crown
and Sceptre, I raised the pavement stone just before
the pulpit, in the night tyme, and digged under it ane
hole, and put them in there, and filled up the hole,
and laid down the stone just as it was before, and
removed the mould that remained, that none would
have discerned the stone to have been raised at all ;
the Sword again, at the west end of the church,
amongst some common seits that stand there, I digged
down in the ground betwixt the two foremost of these

o

seits and laid it down within the case of it and covered
it up, as that removing the superfluous mould it could
not be discerned by anybody ; and if it should please
God to call me by death before they be called for,
your ladyship will find them in that place."
When Dunnottar Castle fell, the conquerors reckoned
on possession of the Regalia, and in their great dis-
appointment they treated the governor and his wife
with much cruelty } even, tradition says, the minister
fell under suspicion. But the Earl Mareschal's
youngest son, Sir John Keith, who had gone abroad,
spread the report that he had secretly taken the
Regalia to Charles in Paris. This story, which was

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

believed, prevented search being made in Scotland.
The minister's wife had her reward after the Restora-
tion, by an Act of Parliament dated January 1 1 ,
1 66 1, in which it is stated: "For as much as the
Estates of Parliament doe understand that Christian
Fletcher, spouse to Mr. James Granger, minister of
Kinneff, was most active in conveying the royal
honours, his Majesties Crown, Sword, and Sceptre,
out of the castle of Dunnottar, immediately before it
was rendered to the English usurpers, and that be the
care of the same they were hid and preserved } therefore
the King's Majestie, with the advice of the Estates in
Parliament, doe appoint two thousand merks Scots to
be forthwith paid unto her be his Majestie's thresauer,
out of the readiest of his Majestie's rents, as a testi-
mony of their sense of her service." Sir John Keith,
who had really done nothing, received an annual
salary of ^400 ; Mr. Granger and the maid seem to
have received nothing.

The Regalia continued to be exposed at the sittings
of the Scottish Parliament down to the Union, when
the people of Scotland and others were up in
arms against the Act. The exasperation of the
populace was increased by a report that Scotland's
Crown, Sceptre, and Sword, her only emblems of
independence, were to be removed to London, for
the Government thought "the royal emblems would
be no safe spectacle for the public sight."

The Earl Mareschal was called upon to surrender the

190

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

custody of the Regalia to the Commissioners of the
Treasury, but he declined to do this in person and
ordered one of the Junior Clerks of Session to deliver
the Crown, Sceptre, and Sword of State to the Com-
missioners. They were therefore, on March 26,
1707, placed in the great black kist of the Stuarts,
together with a memorandum from the Earl Mareschal
minutely describing the various articles of the Regalia,
and protesting that they should not be moved from
the Castle without due intimation to him. The
Crown Room in which the Regalia were thus deposited
is a strong vaulted apartment, its chimney and window
well secured by iron stanchels, and the entrance pro-
tected by two doors, one of oak and one formed of
iron bars, both fastened with bolts, bars, and locks of
great strength. Strange to say, the keys of this room
and of the chest have never been discovered.
It was believed by some that the Regalia had been
secretly removed to the Tower of London, and in
1817 his Royal Highness the Prince Regent- -after-
wards George IV — issued a warrant to the officers of
State and other persons in public trust, permitting
them to open the Crown Room and to force the
famous kist. The Commissioners who assembled on
February 4, 1818, in the governor's house were the
Lord President, the Lord Justice Clerk, the Lord
Chief Commissioner of the Jury Court, Major- General
John Hope, the Solicitor-General, Sir Walter Scott,

and others.

191

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

" It was with feelings of no common anxiety," says
Sir Walter Scott, " that the Commissioners, having
read their warrant, proceeded to the crown-room, and,
having found all there in the state in which it had
been left in 1707, commanded the King's smith
(Neish by name), who was in attendance, to force
open the great chest, the keys of which had been
sought for in vain. The general impression that the
Regalia had been removed weighed heavily on the
hearts of all while the labour proceeded. The chest
seemed to return a hollow and empty sound to the
strokes of the hammer, and even those whose ex-
pectations had been most sanguine felt at the moment
the probability of bitter disappointment, and could
not but be sensible that, should the result of the
search confirm those forebodings, it would only serve
to show that a national affront, an injury, had been
sustained, for which it might be difficult, or rather
impossible, to obtain redress. The joy was therefore
extreme when, the ponderous lid of the chest having
been forced open, at the expense of some time and
labour, the Regalia were discovered at the bottom,
covered with linen cloths, exactly as they had been
left in 1707. The reliques were passed from hand
to hand, and greeted with affectionate reverence, and
so restored to public view after the slumber of more
than a hundred years. The discovery was instantly
communicated to the public by the display of the
Royal Standard, and was greeted by great shouts

192

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

of the soldiers in the garrison, and the vast multitude
assembled on the Castle Hill; indeed, the rejoicing
was so general and sincere as plainly to show that,
however altered in other respects, the people of
Scotland had lost nothing of that national enthusiasm
which formerly had displayed itself in grief for the
loss of those emblematic honours and now was
expressed in joy for their recovery."
The Regalia now lie arranged on a white marble
table, together with the Crown jewels, inside a strong
iron cage in a bomb-proof apartment, its chimney
and windows well secured by bars, and the entrance
protected by two strong doors.

The Crown is generally believed to include in its
materials the circlet of the famous Bruce, according
to Sir Walter Scott, whose deep interest in the
Regalia helped on the cause of their restoration, and
who also, it is said, encouraged the blacksmith in his
mighty effort to open the chest.

The Scots are known to have employed a Crown as
the appropriate badge of sovereignty at a very early
period. After the tragic death of the usurper Macbeth
in 1056, when Malcolm Canmore gained the Throne,
the new monarch was crowned in the Abbey of
Scone, on St. Mark's Day, 1057, and among the
privileges granted to Macduff, Thane of Fife, and his
descendants, in recognition of his services, was that
of personally conducting the King of Scotland to
the royal throne on the day of his coronation — a

2 B 193

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

ceremony which, of course, implied the use of a crown.
It is well known that the Scottish Crown which was
used in these ancient ceremonies fell into the hands
of Edward I when, in the year 1296, he dethroned
John Baliol, and took with him to England every
emblem of Scottish independence. The invader who
carried off the celebrated stone called Jacob's Pillow
was not likely to leave behind the Crown of Scotland,,
not only more portable, but much more valuable.
The following passage would imply that the regal
ornaments were stripped from the very person of
John Baliol, at the time when he surrendered his
kingdom to Edward I after the disastrous battle of
Dunbar. This disgraceful ceremony took place in
the castle of Montrose, or, according to other
authorities, in that of Brechin.

'This Jo/in the Baliol on purpose,

He took and brought him till Muntros,

And in the castle of that town,

That then was famous in renown,

This John the Baliol despoiled he

Of all his robes of royalty ;

The Pelure they took off his tabart,

( Toom-tabart he was called afterwarf)

And all other inseygnys

That fell to Kings on onywise.

Baith Sceptre, Sword, Crown, and Ring

Fra this John that he made King,
194

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

Halyly fra him he took thare,
And made him of the kynryk bare.

Wintourfs " Crony kill"

The royal insignia of Scotland having thus passed
into the hands of Edward, it followed that when
Robert the Bruce asserted the independence of the
country in the year 1306 the ancient Crown of Scot-
land was not used at his coronation. Accordingly,
there was a circlet or ring of gold hastily prepared
for the occasion, which, after Bruce's defeat at
Methven, also fell into the hands of the English
monarch. This fact is established by a pardon
afterward issued by Edward I, upon the intercession,
as he states, " of his beloved Queen Margarate,
to Galfredus de Coigniers, who is stated to have
concealed a certain coronel of gold, with which
Robert the Bruce, enemy and rebel of the King,
had caused himself to be crowned in our kingdom
of Scotland, which guilty concealment, nevertheless,
the King pardons to the said Galfredus de Coigniers,
by a deed executed at Carlisle, March 20, 1307."
Thus the present Crown might have been made at
a later period. It cannot, however, bear an earlier
date than Bruce's establishment in the sovereignty of
Scotland after the victory of Bannockburn, in 1314.
"The question remains," says Scott, "whether it
ought to be assigned to a later reign than that of
the Scottish deliverer, and several reasons incline

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

us to decide in the negative. It is not likely that
Robert the Bruce, highly valuing the independence
which his own valour had procured for Scotland,
would suffer her long to remain without the emblem of
royalty proper to a free State, especially without a crown,
which, in all countries of Europe, was regarded as the
most inalienable mark of regal dignity. His successful
wars in England and the confiscation of the estates of
the faction of the Baliols at home, as it rendered it
easy for the victorious monarch to repair Melrose and
other churches which had suffered during the civil war,
put it also in his power, with more convenience than
most of his successors, to expend a considerable sum
in replacing the regal ornaments of the kingdom. It
may indeed occur as a question why, in the course of
Bruce's triumphant negotiations with England, he did
not demand restitution of the ancient regalia carried
off by Edward in 1 306, as we know that by the treaty
of Northampton he stipulated for the restoration of
the stone called Jacob's Pillow, used at the Corona-
tion, and the various documents which had relation to
the independence of the kingdom of Scotland. We are
left in considerable uncertainty on this subject, as there
is no copy in existence of the treaty of Northampton.
Nevertheless, as none of the historians who mention
its import makes any special allusion to the ancient
Crown of Scotland as falling under the stipulated
restitution, it may be conjectured that it was no longer

in existence, having been probably destroyed for the

196

THE STATE PRISON, WHERE THE MARQUIS
OF ARGYLL WAS CONFINED

Page 196

o

hdinbur

It 'V th

he independence

s own v&loij . ured for Scotland,

H&:-r her long to remain without the emblem of

State, especially without a crown,

ot Europe, was regarded as the

;f regal dignity. His successful

>nfiscation of the estates of

home, as it rendered it

nurch to repair Melrose and

-i r/ .i-iH T 3>iaH.77.i/^|^V^Wfiflrf5 the civil war,

(L-I/H/OJ d/,7/ JJY.3MA HO

more convenience than

,^'^. --Kpcnd a considerable sum

i- v: r- of the kingdom. It

;,x, in the course of

uh England, he did

r;u. -unt regalia carried

, • k: that by the treaty

<. i :t. restoration of

the Corona-

which had relation to

L>-dom of Scotland. We are

tint% on this subject, as there

cncf ot the treaty of Northampton.

the historians who mention

•n\ special allusion to the ancient

as falling under the stipulated

be conjectured that it was no longer

ig been pn ibly destroyed for the

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

sake of the precious materials of which it was formed.
But could we even show evidence that the ancient
badge of royalty was among these articles, the restora-
tion whereof was stipulated by the treaty of North-
ampton, it would not greatly alter the state of the
argument, as those conditions were never complied
with, and the Crown consequently, with Jacob's Pillow
and other articles pillaged by Edward, must have still
remained in England. The style of the present Crown,
particularly of the setting of the stones, is said to corre-
spond with the state of the jeweller's art in the early
part of the fourteenth century, and to strengthen the
belief we have ventured to express that the present
diadem was framed by the command of Robert the
Bruce as a symbol of his own sovereignty, and of the
independence which his prudence and valour had
secured to his country. According to this hypothesis
the present Crown was worn by David II, son of
Robert the Bruce, whose coronation took place in
1329 with unusual solemnity, for by direction of a
papal bull he received the royal unction from the hands
of the Archbishop of Saint Andrews, and this had
been no part of the ceremonial upon preceding occa-
sions. This addition to the solemnity of the pro-
ceedings did not, however, prevent the brief usurpation
of Edward Baliol, who was crowned at Scone in

" How the Regalia were protected during the stormy

times which followed does not appear. Probably as

i97

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

memorials dear to popular feeling they were respected
by both parties. At any rate, it seems almost certain
that the Crown was not again destroyed or mutilated.
Notwithstanding the foreign and domestic wars with
which Scotland was harassed, there occurs no instance
of the Regalia of the kingdom having been in posses-
sion of an enemy or usurper ; and it may therefore be
conjectured that the present Crown remained the same
and unaltered since the days of Bruce, until the
example of other sovereign princes in foreign countries
induced James V to close it at the top with arches.
u Diadems, or open crowns, like that of Scotland in its
original state, were generally assumed by inferior and
feudatory princes, and differed so little in appearance
from the coronets of the nobility that most of the
monarchs of Europe, desirous of giving the regal
badge a form of marked and pre-eminent distinction,
began, at the end of the fifteenth and the beginning
of the sixteenth century, to use crowns arched over,
or closed at the top, like those which were formerly
called imperial. From this custom arose the saying
that a prince wished to ' close his crown,' when he
was supposed to aim at shaking off his dependence on
a liege lord or superior. Charles VIII of France
adopted a close or imperial crown in 1495, and
Henry VII of England in 1495. The Kings of
Scotland were not so long in assuming the same mark
of dignity. Both James III and James IV appear on

their coins with close crown, although the arches were

198

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

not actually added to the ancient open diadem until
James V, as appears from the characters inscribed on
the arches."

The form of the Crown is remarkably elegant.
The lower part consists of two circles, the under-
most much broader than that which rises over it }
both are composed of the purest gold, and the upper-
most is surmounted or relieved by a range of fleurs-
de-lis, interchanged with crosses fleurees, and alternating
with the fleurs-de-lis and the crosses are knobs or
pinnacles of gold, each topped with a pearl. At the
base of each fleur-de-lis is set a diamond, and at
the base of each cross a blue enamel suggesting a
sapphire. On a broad band between the two circles are
twenty-two stones, carbuncles, topazes, amethysts,
jacinths, and rock crystals ; alternating with these
stones are five large pearls. These two circles and
the band between them thus ornamented seem to
have formed the original diadem or Crown of
Scotland until the reign of James V, who added
two imperial arches rising from the circle and
crossing each other, and closing at the top in a globe
of gold enamelled blue, which again is surmounted by
a large cross pdtee, ornamented with black enamel and
pearls, and bearing the characters J. R. V. These
arches are attached to the original Crown by tacks of
gold, and there is some inferiority in the quality of
the metal. The bonnet or tiara worn under the Crown

was anciently of purple, but is now of crimson velvet,

i99

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

turned up with ermine, a change adopted in the year
1685. The tiara is adorned with four superb pearls
set in gold, and fastened in the velvet which appears
between the arches. The Crown measures nearly
eight inches in diameter, twenty-seven inches in
circumference, and about six inches and a half in
height from the bottom of the lower circle to the top
of the cross.

The Sceptre was presented to James IV by Pope
Alexander VI, and was remade by James V. It is a
slight and well-proportioned rod of silver gilt, thirty-
four inches in length, of hexagon form ; the lines are
broken by three fluted rings, surmounted by a capital
of chased dolphins supporting three figures repre-
senting the Virgin Mary, St. Andrew, and St. James,
which again support a large crystal ball. Such crystal
balls have long been invested with superstitious asso-
ciations, and are still known among the Highlanders
as c stones of power.' The whole design is topped
by an Oriental pearl.

The Sword of State was presented to James IV by
Pope Julius II in 1507. It has a scabbard of crimson
velvet covered with filigree work. The belt of the
Sword was restored to the Regalia only in May 1893,
by the Rev. Samuel Ogilvy Baker, descendant of
Ogilvy of Barras. When the Sword was removed
along with the Sceptre and Crown from Dunnottar
Castle the belt was left behind, and became the
property of the Ogilvys of Barras. It bears the

200

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

emblems and insignia of Pope Julius II, designed in
the same style as the ornamentation of the scabbard.
Besides these c Honours of Scotland,' there are also
the jewels that were bequeathed to King George IV
by Henry Benedict, Cardinal of York, the last of the
Stuarts, and deposited in the presence of officers of
State in 1830. They are four in number, as follows:
The Badge of the Order of the Garter (the St.
George), and the Collar, in gold richly enamelled and
set with diamonds ; a Ring, mounted with a ruby sur-
rounded with diamonds, sometimes, but erroneously,
said to have been the coronation ring of Charles I ;
the Jewel of St. Andrew, which is not only a very
beautiful jewel, but one of exceptional interest. It
was worn by Prince Charlie in the "45,' and belonged
to his father, the Chevalier St. George. It was the
badge by which the Prince was to be recognized by
his adherents on landing in Scotland. This informa-
tion has not previously been made public, although
long known in Jacobite circles. On the Badge of
the Thistle, the fourth of the jewels, there is a secret
opening, in which is placed a fine miniature of Clemen-
tina Maria Sobieski, the mother of Prince Charlie ; the
image of St. Andrew on the other side is cut on an
onyx set round with diamonds.

These treasures are displayed with the ' Honours,'
which are the only ancient regal emblems in Britain,
for those of England were destroyed by the Great
Protector. The Crown has shone on the head of

2 C 2OI

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

Bruce, has been placed over the head of each King
James, and has adorned the auburn hair of the
beautiful Queen Mary ; and to preserve that of which
it is the symbol many thousands of Scotland's brave
sons have laid down their lives on the field of battle.
The kist in which the Regalia were found is worthy of
attention. It is a huge chest of oak, strengthened
and held together by iron bands. Its dimensions
show that it was brought into the Crown Room
in panels, and the screws and nuts that hold it
together can be seen inside it. The old hasps that
were broken in 1818 still remain, and it now bears
also three large padlocks.

The iron-grated door of the room is of an entirely
characteristic Scottish type. The ingenious method
by which the bars are interlaced will well repay
investigation, for it is perhaps the strongest form of
gate known.

202

CHAPTER XI : Mons Meg and other
Relics

CHAPTER XI : Mons Meg and other

AMONG the famous prisoners that were incar-
cerated in the dungeons of the Castle was
James Mhor Macgregor of Bohaldie, the
eldest son of Rob Roy, the famous chief of the Mac-
gregors. James had lost his estate for having held a
major's commission under the Old Pretender. Robin
Oig Macgregor, his younger brother, having conceived
the idea that he would make his fortune by carrying
off an heiress — no uncommon thing in the Highlands
-procured James's assistance, with a band of Mac-
gregors, armed with target, pistol, and claymore, who
came suddenly from the wilds of Arroquhar. Sur-
rounding the house of Edinbellie, in Stirlingshire, the
abode of a wealthy widow of only nineteen, they
seized her, and, muffling her in a plaid, bore her to the
heather-clad hills where Rowardennan looks down upon
the Gareloch and Glenfruin. There she was married
to Robin, who kept her for three months in defiance
of several parties of troops sent to recover her.
From his general character James Mhor was considered
to be a chief instigator of this outrage ; thus the ven-
geance of the Crown was directed against him rather
than Robin, who received some leniency on account
of his youth. He was arrested, tried, and found
guilty by the Lords of Justiciary, but in consequence

of some doubt, or because of some informality, sentence

205

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

of death was delayed until November 1752. As it
was believed that an attempt to rescue him might be
made by the Highlanders serving in the city as caddies,
chairmen, and city guards — for Macgregor's bravery
at Prestonpans, seven years before, had made him
popular with the clansmen — he was removed by a
warrant from the Lord Justice Clerk, addressed to
General Churchill, from the Tolbooth to the Castle,
there to be kept in close confinement till his fatal day
arrived. But it came to pass that on November 16
one of his daughters, a tall and very handsome girl,
disguised herself as a lame old cobbler and obtained
admittance to the prisoner, bearing a pair of newly
soled shoes. The guards in the adjacent corridors
heard James Macgregor scolding the supposed cobbler
with considerable asperity for some time for the indif-
ferent manner in which his work had been executed.
Meanwhile they were exchanging costumes, and at
length James came limping forth grumbling and
swearing. An old and tattered greatcoat enveloped
him } he had donned a leather apron, a pair of old
shoes, and ribbed stockings. A red nightcap was
drawn to his ears, and a broad hat slouched over his
eyes. He quitted the Castle undetected, and suc-
ceeded in leaving the city. His flight was soon dis-
covered . The city gates were shut, the fortress searched,
and every man who had been on duty was made pri-
soner. A court-martial, consisting of thirteen officers,
sat for five days in the old barracks, and its proceedings

206

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

ended in two officers being cashiered, the Serjeant
who kept the key of Macgregor's room being reduced
to the ranks, and the flogging of a warder. Mac-
gregor escaped to France, where he died about the
time of the French Revolution in extreme old age.
Robin Oig Macgregor was, however, executed in the
Grassmarket in 1754 for the abduction.
On the Bomb Battery, or King's Bastion, directly in
front of St. Margaret's Chapel, stands the giant piece
of ordnance known as Mons Meg, a relic of the
fifteenth century, with its great muzzle commanding
the fine panorama of the New Town. In one respect
it is similar in construction to some of our modern
weapons } that is, the metal is welded together in
strong coils. It measures thirteen feet in length and
twenty inches in diameter within the bore, and weighs
upward of five tons. It is supposed to be the most
ancient piece of cannon in Europe with the exception
of one at Lisbon. Grant says that not a vestige of
proof can be shown for the popular belief that this
gun was forged at Mons } indeed, unvarying tradi-
tion, supported by very strong corroborative evidence,
asserts that it was formed by Scottish artisans, by
order of James II, when he besieged the rebellious
Douglases in the castle of Thrieve, in Galloway, in
1455. He posted his artillery at the Three Thorns
of the Carlinwark,1 which still survives, but the fire
proved ineffective, so a smith named M'Kim and his

1 That is, ' Witch-mound.' The name is possibly a relic of Druidical days.

207

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

sons offered to construct a more efficient piece of
ordnance. Toward this the inhabitants of the vicinity
contributed each a gaud, or iron bar. Tradition, Grant
goes on to say, never varied, and indicated a mound
near the Three Thorns as the place of the forging.
When the road was made at that spot this mound
was discovered to be a mass of cinders and the iron
debris of a great forge. Another story has it that the
King granted to c Brawny Kim,' the smith in question,
the lands of Mollance — the contraction of Mollance
to c Monce ' and his wife's name ' Meg ' suggests
the origin of the name c Mons Meg.'
To this day the place where Mons Meg was mounted
is called Knock-cannon. Only two of the great cannon-
balls were fired from it before the surrender of Thrieve,
and both have been found. The first, according to
the New Statistical Account, was toward the end of
the seventeenth century picked out of the castle well
and delivered to Gordon of Greenlaw. In 1841 the
tenant of Thrieve discovered the second when removing
a rubbish heap. The balls piled on either side of the
gun in the Castle are believed to be exactly similar to
those found at Thrieve, and are cut out of Galloway
granite from a quarry on Binnan Hill, near the Carlin-
wark. The gun has had several variations in its
name. It has been termed ' Mounts Meg,' 4 Munch
Meg,' and ' the great iron murderer, Muckle Meg.'
Near the breech may be seen a large rent, which was
made in 1632, when a salute was being fired in honour

208

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

of the Duke of York, afterwards James VII. In 1489 it
was employed at the siege of Dumbarton, and at some
time when James IV invaded England it is supposed he
took the gigantic weapon with him on a new stock
made at St. Leonard's Craig ; and the accounts at
the time mention the amounts paid to those who
brought " hame Monse and the other artailzerie frae
Dalkeith." Many are the stories of her achievements.
A shot from her, fired from the castle of Dunnottar
a mile and a half distant, is said to have dismasted an
English vessel as she was about to enter the harbour
of Stonehaven, but as Mons Meg was never at Dun-
nottar this story cannot be true. During the Civil
War in 1571 one of her bullets fell by mistake through
the roof of a house in Edinburgh, for which the tenant
had compensation } and whilst the gun was being
dragged from Blackfriars Yard to the Castle two men
died of their exertions.

An extract from the chamberlain's roll is both amusing
and interesting : "To certain pynours for their labour
in the mounting of Mons out of her lair to be shot,
and for finding and carrying of her bullets after she
was shot, from Wardie Muir, to the Castle, i od. ;
to the minstrels who played before Mons down the
street [on occasion of her visit to Holy rood], 145. ;
for 8 ells of cloth to cover Mons, 95. 4<i."
In 1758 the gun was removed by mistake among a
number of unserviceable pieces to the Tower of Lon-
don, where it was shown till 182,9. When George IV

2 D 209

"The Story of Edinburgh Castle

visited Edinburgh in 1822 Sir Walter Scott pointed
out to him the spot of Meg's former location on the
King's Bastion of the old fortress, and with all his
powerful eloquence pleaded that she might be restored
to her position again. The King gave his word that
it should be so, but it was not till seven years after
that national jealousy and similar obstacles could
permit the fulfilment of the royal promise.
The leviathan was landed at Leith, whence it was
escorted back to its old lair on the Castle by three
troops of cavalry and the 73rd Perthshire Regiment,
with a band of pipers to head the procession.
Standing alongside this ancient armament on the
King's Bastion, one's eyes roam over the buildings in
which the historical incidents that have been narrated
took place, and looking round one cannot fail to see
how the ancient Castle formed a nucleus for the great
city which clusters round its base. In spite of all the
sieges which this venerable stronghold has weathered,
the devastations to which it has been subjected by
successive conquerors, and, above all, the total change
in its defences consequent on the alterations introduced
by modern warfare, it can still boast of buildings
dating further back than any other in the ancient
capital. Some portion of the battlements and fortifi-
cations belong to a period before the siege of 1573,
when that brave soldier and adherent of Queen Mary
Stuart, Sir William Kirkaldy of Grange, surrendered
after it had been reduced to a heap of ruins. In a

2IO

MONS MEG ON THE BOMB BATTERY

Page 210

Sir Walter Scott point

out to him r f Meg's former location on tru

King's Bastion of the old fortress, and with all his
powerful eloquence pleaded that she might be restor
to h p< Mtion again. The King gave his word that

!>> hut it was not till seven years after
jealousy and similar obstacles could
'merit ot the royal promise.

landed at Leith, whence it was

ld hiir on the Castle by three

7

.ouv^ d the procession.

andenf arm am cut on the

ro;Tin over the buildings in

tku have been narrated

cannot fail to see

nucleus for the great

.;;-:v t-. In spite of all the

!»cni bold has weathered,

••ib.'ch it ins been subjected by

, ki! J, above alt, the total change

qucpt on the alterations introduced

c.tn still boast of buildings

o

than any other in the ancient
ion of the battlements and fortifi-
pcriod before the siege of 1573,
iUr and adherent of Queen M.
Ktrkaldy of Grange, surrender '
ctuted to a heap of ruins.

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

report furnished to the Board of Ordnance, from
documents preserved in that department, it appears
that in 1574 (only one year after the siege) the
governor, George Douglas, of Parkhead, repaired the
walls and built the Half-Moon Battery on the site of
David's great tower. A small tower, with crow-
stepped gables, built to the east of the draw-well, and
forming the highest point of the fore-wall just north of
the Half-Moon Battery, is, Daniel Wilson says, with-
out doubt a building erected long before Cromwell's
time, and to all appearance coeval with the battery, but
it is quite obvious that this little tower is older than
even Wilson thought. Considerable portions of the
western fortifications of the parapet wall, the port-holes
in the Half-Moon Battery, and the ornamental coping
and embrasures of the north and east batteries are of
much later date.

The approach to the Castle has undergone various
alterations from time to time. The Esplanade as one
sees it to-day was formed with the earth removed
from the site of the Royal Exchange, which was
commenced in 1753. Previous to this date the old
roadway to the Castle from the c treves ' on Castle
Hill descended abruptly into the hollow which the
Esplanade now covers and ascended by ' Nova Scotia *
to the Spur, which was a triangular defence outside
and below the steep ascent to the old gateway.
An interesting bird's-eye view taken in 573 and
printed in the Bannatyne Miscellany represents the

211

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

Castle as rising abruptly on the east side; this also
appears in all the earlier maps of Edinburgh. The
entrance to the fortress appears to have been by
a long flight of steps, and a similar approach is often
shown immediately within the drawbridge. There
seems to have been an ancient and highly ornamental
gateway near the guard-room, decorated with
pilasters, with deeply carved mouldings over the
arch, and surmounted with a curious oblong piece
of sculpture in high relief showing Mons Meg, with
other ordnance and ancient weapons. This old gate-
way unfortunately had to be removed at the beginning
of the present century, as it was too narrow to admit
modern carriages and wagons. The present gateway
was erected on its site, and the old carved panels have
been placed in the walls.

The inner gateway to the west of the one just referred
to is an ancient piece of architecture. Upon the walls
of the deeply arched vault, leading into the Argyll
Battery, one can find openings for the two portcullises,
also traces of the hinges of several successive gates
that once closed this important opening. The build-
ing immediately over the long vaulted archway is the
Constable Tower or State Prison, which has figured
so much in the story of the Castle. This was the
gloomy prison in which both the Marquis and the
Earl of Argyll were confined previous to their execu-
tion, and from which the latter had so romantic an
escape, only to be once more dragged back to await

212

'The Story of Edinburgh Castle

the fatal day. Here it was, too, that the brave
adherents to the House of Stuart suffered the penalty
of the law. Inside one will notice the groove round
the vaulted roof where once a portcullis was lowered
to divide the gloomy apartment, with its immensely
thick walls and grated windows overlooking a mag-
nificent panorama of the surrounding country. The
last State prisoners lodged here were Watt and
Downie, who were accused of high treason in 1 794.
Watt was condemned to death, and it was intended
that he should be executed on the Castle Hill- -the
place of execution for traitors- -but it was thought
this might be looked upon as indicating fear on the
part of the Government, so he was taken to the Lawn-
market and dispatched there in the presence of a great
crowd.

The State Prison was restored by the late Mr. William
Nelson, the well-known publisher. The panel above
the lower end of the archway now containing the
Scottish Lion Rampant was recarved after remain-
ing disfigured from the time of the Commonwealth,
when Cromwell ordered its destruction ; the two
hounds on either side are the arms of the Gordons,
and these were spared } above the royal arms may
still be seen the hearts and mullets of the Douglases.
On the left, high up on the wall, is the memorial
tablet to the brave Kirkaldy of Grange, who, as already
related, held the Castle in the interest of Mary

Stuart.

213

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

Another object of interest is the Governor's house,
which was probably built in the reign of Queen Anne,
and close by is the Armoury. To the west of these
buildings is the Postern, very near the site of the
ancient and historical one where, as is recorded on a
memorial tablet over the gateway, 4 Bonnie Dundee '
held his conference with the Duke of Gordon when
on his way to raise the Highland clans for King
James, while the Convention was assembled in the
Parliament House and was arranging to settle the
Crown upon William and Mary. It was through here,
too, that the body of the pious Queen Margaret was
smuggled whilst Donald Bane and his band of wild
western Highlanders were battering at the gates on the
east side in the hope of capturing young Edgar, the
second son of Malcolm.

On the highest and almost inaccessible part of the
rock overlooking the Old Town, where the smoky
chimneys of the Grassmarket lie two hundred or more
feet below, is the ancient royal palace, forming the
south and east sides of a quadrangle known as the
Grand Parade, or Crown Square. The chief portion
of the southern side of the square consists of a large
ancient building called Magne Camere, or Great Hall,
erected, according to the Exchequer Rolls, in 1434.
A similar hall, however, some suppose had existed on
the spot at a much earlier date. This was the great
ceremonial chamber of the royal palace in which Par-
liaments assembled and banquets were held. It was

214

The Story oj Edinburgh Castle

here that James II of Scotland was proclaimed King,
and the treacherous Crichton and Livingstone enter-
tained the two Douglases at the fatal ' Black Dinner.'
Here also Queen Mary entertained her riotous nobles
with the idea of reconciling them, and James VI
feasted the nobility of both countries. Here the
unfortunate Charles held his coronation banquet, and
in 1648 the Marquis of Argyll, in the same hall,
entertained Cromwell and discussed the necessity of
taking away the King's life. These are but a few of
the notable events that took place within the walls of
this ancient hall, which was connected with the royal
palace by a narrow staircase at the east end.
When, after the Union in 1707, the Castle ceased to
be used as a royal residence the Hall fell into dis-
repair. Subsequently it was divided into floors and
partitioned off into rooms for the accommodation of
the soldiers. It was also used for many years as the
military hospital, and the writer remembers the time
when convalescents used the square as a recreation
ground. Some years later the authorities, under
the pressure of antiquarians, took steps to ascertain
the original condition of the building.
By some good fortune, in 1883, Colonel Gore Booth,
of the Royal Engineers, discovered a staircase com-
municating with the hall from the dungeons under-
neath. This aroused curiosity, and Lord Napier
and Ettrick, with Colonel Gore Booth, examined the

upper floors and the original roof above the ceiling,

215

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

and found the rafters and cross-pieces, which stand in
their original position, in good preservation. On the
upper floor the carved timbers of the ancient roof
were apparent, descending through the modern ceiling
and resting probably on their proper supports below
the level of the floor. Only one of these supports,
however, was visible in the staircase, and it consisted
of a stone corbel sculptured with a fine female head,
and adorned on the sides with thistles boldly wrought.
Mr. William Nelson, who had already restored the State
Prison, undertook the restoration of the Banqueting
Hall. The architect, in his examination of the fabric,
after the flooring and partitions had been removed,
discovered that the Hall had been re-roofed about
sixty years after the date of its erection. He found
that the main timbers of the roof were supported by
stone corbels embedded in the modern flooring. These
corbels remain as they were found. Two of them
bear heads which represent James IV and his Queen
Margaret. The others are carved with cherubs, and
fleurs-de-hs shields bearing the royal Scottish arms
surmounted by a crown, lion head, and emblems of
plenty. There are shields on three of the corbels
bearing the initials J. R. (Jacobus T^ex) under an
arabic figure four in its old form, which resembles a
St. Andrew's cross with a bar along the top. The
corbels are carved with the design of the thistle and
rose on either side, emblematic of the Scottish King
and his Tudor Queen ; on the faces of two are cut

216

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

the same decoration. One has the monogram
I.H.S., and in the centre a cross said to represent
King James's connexion with the Church as a canon
of the Cathedral of Glasgow. The great timber
roof of the Hall is just as it was centuries ago. The
timbers terminate at the foot with carved shields, on
which are emblazoned the armorial bearings of the
governors and constables of the old fortress from
1 107 to 1805.

The beautiful windows lighting the north and south
sides were restored, and bear colour designs of the
arms of Scottish sovereigns from the time of Malcolm
Canmore, 1057, to James VI. On a small window
in the west gable appear the royal arms of Scotland.
Opposite to this is the original ' luggie ' or eyelet
of the private stair leading to the royal palace already
referred to. The ' luggie ' has been covered with a
wrought-iron grille. Through it a listener on the stair
could see and hear what was taking place in the Hall.
The old fireplace was discovered amongst a heap of
modern masonry, but it was in such a state of dilapi-
dation that it had to be reconstructed, and now makes
a fine if rather large centre-piece at the east gable.
It is of massive design, decorated with carved shafts
supporting a richly carved and moulded lintel and
stone canopy. The projecting angles have corbels
beautifully carved with classical figures represent-
ing c The Chase,' ' Music,' c Feasting,' and
*Law.' These corbels support emblematical figures

2 E 217

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

suggested by Dunbar's poem of The Thrissill and
the Rots, written in honour of the marriage of
James IV to Princess Margaret, and represent
c May,' c Flora,' c Aurora,' and 4 Venus.'

And as the bhsfull soune of cherarchy
The fowlis song throw confort of the licht ;
The birdis did with oppin vocis cry,
O luvaris fo, away thow dully nycht,
And welcum Day that confortis every wicht /
Haill May, haill Flora, haill Aurora schene,
Haill Princes Nature, haill Venus luvis
quene.

The walls are covered in their lower parts with carved
oak panelling, like that employed on the gallery and
screen, and above are hung in artistic groups the
arms and armour which were brought from the old
Armoury and also from the Tower of London.
These old weapons, which date from the sixteenth
century comprise such pieces as blunderbusses, High-
land targets and pikes of various designs from the
field of Culloden, Lochaber axes, Highland flint-lock
pistols, and fine suits of steel armour.
From the timbers of the roof are suspended the colours
which belonged to the old Scottish regiments, and they
form an interesting part of the exhibition, for some of
the regiments are now extinct, and these relics are all
that is left of them. They include the colours of

218

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

the old Midlothian Regiment of 1775, the Inverness
Local Militia, 3rd Regiment, 1775, t'le Galloway
Light Infantry (embroidered in silk in the centre of
which is the Lion Rampant of Scotland, surrounded
by a three-quarter Union wreath and crown, with
the motto, Senes Callatus Callovidi<e sub hoc signo
vinces), the Ayrshire Riflemen, the Linlithgowshire
Local Regiment, the pth Battalion Royal Veterans,
the Dumbartonshire, the Fifeshire, the Roxburgh and
4th Lanark Highlanders, the Haddingtonshire and
4th Lanarkshire, the 2nd East Royal Perthshire, the
2nd and 3rd Edinburgh Local Militia, the Kincardine-
shire, Forfarshire, 5th Aberdeenshire, and the Royal
Perth and Edinburgh Highlanders. Most of these
colours, some of which are the King's as well as the
regimental, are of the period of George III.
At the east end, in front of the great fireplace, stands
the modern gun-carriage which not only bore the
remains of Queen Victoria from Osborne to Cowes,
but also did similar duty in the funeral procession of
King Edward VII. From the windows the view can
hardly be surpassed. Immediately below are the old
houses of the Grassmarket and the West Port, rapidly
disappearing, beyond which rise the new buildings of
Edinburgh's Art School. Slightly farther to the east
rise the fine towers of George Heriot's Hospital, a
lasting monument to the jeweller to James VI who
left his fortune for the benefit of the orphans of

burgesses and freemen, and in the distance is Blackford

219

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

Hill, whence Sir Walter Scott pictured Marmion's
view of Edinburgh :

Still on the spot Lord Marmion stayed,
For fairer scene he ne*er surveyed.
When sated with the martial show
That peopled all the plain below,
The wandering eye could o'er it go
And mark the distant city glow
With gloomy splendour red ;
For on the smoke-wreaths, huge and slow,
That round her sable turrets flow,
The morning beams were shed,
And tinged them with a lustre proud,
Like that which streaks a thunder-cloud.
Such dusky grandeur clothed the height,
Where the huge Castle holds its state,
And all the steep slope down,
Whose ridgy back heaves to the sky,
Piled deep and massy, close and high,
Mine own romantic town!

On the south-east is the ancient castle of Craigmillar,
where the Stuarts so many times sojourned, and on
the west the towers of Merchiston Castle, where lived
Sir Archibald Napier, Master of the Mint to James VI.
Between these two landmarks is the great expanse
of the Burgh Muir, where the gallant armies met
preparatory to their long march to meet the English

220

The Story of Ed in bur gh Castle

invaders, and James III and IV from these same
windows watched their standard of the Scottish Lion,
c the Ruddy Lion,' unfurled and pitched in the famous
'Bore Stane.'

To the east and south-east of the quadrangle we have
the royal palace wherein have dwelt kings and queens
in all their splendour as far back, perhaps, as Malcolm
'Greathead,' and there built in the wall is still the
mystery which no one seeks to decipher — and could
not if he wished. Near the top of the main
building is a sculptured stone shield, which has
suffered more, perhaps, from the disciples of Cromwell
than from the weather, with the Lion Rampant sur-
mounted by a crown, and over the doorway a stone
tablet with the cipher of Mary and Darnley carved in
high relief on a scroll with the c 1566' which com-
memorates the birth of the Prince whose fortune was
to unite England and Scotland under one Crown.
Within is the room in which he was born, once
beautifully panelled, but abused in later years by
being turned into a canteen for the soldiers, who loafed
in the very chairs that the unfortunate Queen sat in.
The antechamber is hung with portraits and old
engravings, one of which is of Mary Stuart when
Dauphiness of France, a copy by Sir John Watson
Gordon from the original in Dunrobin Castle by
Farino, the Italian painter. It is supposed to have
been painted shortly after her marriage with Francis,
when only sixteen. Another portrait is of James VI,

221

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

a copy from one painted by Jacobus Jansen which is
in the possession of the Hays of Dunse Castle ; the
picture here was presented by the Right Hon. Lady
Monson. There is another portrait of Queen Mary
which has been copied from the Bodleian Library at
Oxford, and a print by Lizars from the painting by
Sheriff representing the Queen's escape from Loch
Leven. This recalls the fact that Queen Mary once
planted a thorn tree on the island } it was cut down
in 1847, after casting its shadows on the castle
for nearly three hundred years. A piece of this tree
has been presented by Sir Graham Montgomery, and
it now lies in the little room.

Besides the great Banqueting Hall there was another
much smaller one in the fortress, for among items
of the High Treasurer's accounts we find, in 1516,
" For flooring the Lord's Hall in David's Tower,

I OS."

Some parts of the palace are supposed to have been
designed by Sir James Hamilton of Finnart, who was
architect to James V. A semi-octagonal tower of
some height gives access to the strongly vaulted bomb-
proof room, once totally dark, in which the Regalia
were so long kept in obscurity. The room is now
well lighted, and the beautiful Crown of Scotland and
the insignia of royal office are exhibited to the visitor
in a great grille. The window in the wall facing the
square was enlarged in 1848, and the ceiling panelled
in oak with shields in bold relief. Two barriers

222

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

close the room, one a grated door of gigantic strength
like a portcullis.

In this same building Queen Mary's mother, the
Catholic Mary of Guise, died in 1560, and, having
been refused funeral rites by the Protestant clergy,
the body, it will be remembered, was here allowed to
lie for some considerable time before it was removed
to France.

Down in the depths are the double tier of vaulted
dungeons, secured by great iron gates and heavy chains.
It was in one of these that Kirkcaldy of Grange buried
his brother David Melville ; also it was here that the
poor French prisoners, forty of whom slept in each
chamber, were kept captive in the dim light which
came from the small loophole, which was then strongly
guarded by three ranges of iron bars. The north side
of the quadrangle consists of barrack-rooms, erected
about the middle of the eighteenth century, and occupy-
ing the site of an ancient church. The block was built
from the materials of the old building, which was of
unknown antiquity. This is described by Maitland as
a very long and large ancient church, which, from its
spacious dimensions, was evidently not only built for
the use of the garrison, but for the service of the neigh-
bouring inhabitants before St. Giles' Church was
erected for their accommodation. The great font
and many beautifully carved stones were found built
into the walls of the barrack-rooms during some

alterations. It was supposed to have been built after

223

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

the death of the pious Margaret, and dedicated to St.
Mary. It is mentioned by King David I in his Holyrood
charter as " the church of the capital of Edinburgh,"
and is once more mentioned as such in the charter
of Alexander III and in several papal bulls, and the
" paroche kirk within the said Castell ' is distinctly
referred to by the Presbytery of Edinburgh in 1595.
In 1753 it was divided into three floors and used as a
store for tents, cannon, and other munitions of war.
Near the old Postern is the site of the old butts, con-
nected to the garrison buildings by a winding stair.
The rock at this part is defended by the western wall,
Butes or Butts Battery, and a turret named the Queen's
Post, which some people think stands near the site of
St. Margaret's Tower.

From the ancient postern gate there is an ascent by
steps behind the banquette of the bastions to Mylne's
Mount, named after the master gunner, where there
is a cradle for a bale-fire, which could be seen from
Fife and Stirling. The fortifications are built in an
irregular way, with occasional strong stone turrets, and
embrasures which are in readiness for mounting sixty
pieces of ordnance. "The Old Castle Company"
was a corps of Scottish soldiers raised in January 1 66 1,
and formed a permanent part of the garrison until
1818, when they were incorporated in one of the
thirteen veteran battalions embodied in that year,
along with the ancient guard of Mary of Guise
which garrisoned the castle of Stirling.

224

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

The Castle has a claim on the Canongate churchyard
as a burial-place for its soldiers, as it is within the
parish of Holyrood, but repeatedly during the sieges
and blockades the dead have been buried within the
walls. In 1 745 nineteen soldiers and three women, it
is believed, were laid to rest on the summit of the
rock, near to St. Margaret's Chapel. The chapel, by
the way, originally built by the pious Queen during
her residence in the Castle, was for some time entirely
lost sight of as an oratory, having been converted
into a powder magazine ; but happily in 1853 the old
relic was once more restored to its more sacred uses.
It is not only the most ancient chapel in the country,
but the smallest.

225

CHAPTER XII : The Castle Hill

CHAPTER XII : The Castle Hill

1"AHE Castle Hill, on which the Esplanade and
parade-ground are formed, was the scene
of many horrible executions of unfortunate
persons found guilty, in the ignorant intolerance of
the times, of witchcraft and heresy. On one occasion
no fewer than five suffered together the agony of
being burnt at the stake. They were : Thomas Forret,
Vicar of Dollar 5 John Keillor and John Beveridge,
both Black Friars ; a priest of the name of Duncan
Simpson } and Robert Forrester, a gentleman. It will
be remembered that King James V journeyed from
Linlithgow to witness this revolting spectacle, an
act that could hardly have been expected from
a monarch who had done so much for social
reform.

Punishments for witchcraft were frequent. Great
numbers of wretched, ignorant creatures of both
sexes and of various conditions were accused of this
imaginary crime and put to death with the most
horrible tortures.

Sorcery was treated as a criminal offence as far back
as the reign of James III, when his brother, the Earl
of Mar, along with twelve women and three or four
others who were supposed to be accomplices, was burnt
to death for consulting with witches upon a plan to
shorten the life of the King. It is not until the
reign of Queen Mary that a proper trial for the crime

appears on the records of the Justiciary Court. In

229

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

Mary's ninth Parliament we find an Act passed declar-
ing that witches or consulters with witches should be
punished with death, which Act became operative
immediately. Persons of high rank maliciously accused
others in society of this imaginary practice. The
Countess of Atholl, Lady Buccleuch, and the wife of
the Chancellor, among others, were openly charged
with dealing in charms and protecting witches . Even
John Knox, the great reformer, did not escape the
accusation of having attempted to raise " some sanctes
in the kirkyard of St. Andrew's," and it was said that
whilst in the midst of his incantations he raised 'old
Nick' himself, with a great pair of horns on his head,
a sight so terrible that Knox's secretary died from
fright.

A terrible fate befell Dame Euphemia Macalzean,
Lord Cliftonhall's daughter. She seems to have been
a lady of powerful intellect and licentious passions,
and was not only accused of many acts of sorcery of
a common kind, but was also charged with complicity
in the making of a waxen figure of the King, and
with conspiring to raise a storm to drown the Queen
on her homeward voyage from Denmark. A great
number of poisonings and attempts at poisoning were
also included in her indictment, but the jury acquitted
her in respect of several of these alleged crimes. She
was found guilty, however, of destroying by witch-
craft her husband's nephew, Douglas of Pumfraston,

and of attempting to destroy her father-in-law, as well

230

THE CASTLE BY MOONLIGHT

Page 230

77? of Edinb b »

M we find an Act passed declar-

s with witches should be

punished with death, which Act became operative
immediately. Persons of high rank malick

society of this imaginary practice. T

Atholf, Lady Buccleuch, and the wife of
i ilor, among others, were openly charged
v,».rms and protecting witches. Even
reformer, did not escape the
ing attempted to raise "some sanctes
WWMftS^^BfiB it was said that
' 4w1n can tations he raised 'old
a great pair of horns on his head,
thai Knox's secretary died from

Kuphemia Macalzean,
She seems to have been
'.i intellect and licentious passions,
many acts of sorcery of

- »•

barged with complicity
vv.ixcn figure of the King, arid

O C>7

[S'j a storm to drown the Queen
\ o\ :sgc from Denmark. A great
and attempts at poisoning were
-.ndictment, but the jury acquitted
*-fcrai of these alleged crimes. She
;we\ er, of destroying by witch-
htrphcw, Douglas of Pumfraston,
to dt^tnn her father-in-law, as wt

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

as of participating in the practices against the King's
life. The unfortunate lady was an adherent of the
Romish faith and a friend of the turbulent Earl of
Bothwell, who also was alleged to have been implicated
in the matter of the waxen figure and in other similar
devices against the King. Her punishment was the
severest the court could pronounce. She was con-
demned to be " bound to a stake, and burnt in assis,
quick [alive] to the death," and all her estates and
property were forfeited to the Crown. She endured
her horrible fate with the greatest firmness on the
Castle Hill, June 25, 1591.

These trials produced a deep and permanent im-
pression on the credulous and superstitious mind of
the ' British Solomon,' and they appear to have
led to the composition of his noted work, the
Dtemonologie.

Numerous other trials for witchcraft took place
during the reign of James. The unhappy victims
of ignorance and credulity were usually charged with
removing or laying diseases on men or cattle, with
destroying crops, sinking ships and drowning mariners,
holding meetings with the devil, raising and dismem-
bering dead bodies for the purpose of obtaining charms,
and other offences of a similar kind. After the death
of James the epidemic seems to have abated somewhat
in virulence, for from 1623 to 1640 there are only
eight trials for witchcraft entered on the records of

the Justiciary Court, and, strange to say, in one case

231

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

the alleged criminal was acquitted. Counsel for the
accused, too, ventured to impeach the credibility of
confessions made by alleged witches on the ground
that " all lawyers agree that they are not really trans-
ported, but only in their fancies while asleep, in which
they sometimes dream they see others" at their
orgies. During the Civil War and the Common-
wealth, however, the crime of witchcraft seems to have
been greatly on the increase, although the judges
appointed by Cromwell discountenanced proceedings
against reputed witches. Between 1640 and the
Restoration no fewer than thirty trials appear on the
records, while an immensely larger number of accused
persons were handed over to commissions, composed
of 'understanding gentlemen' and ministers, appointed
by the Privy Council to examine and try those accused
of witchcraft in their respective localities. No fewer
than fourteen of these commissions were appointed
in one day in 1661, and many hundreds of persons,
principally aged females, were put to death about
this period for the imaginary crime. The calendar
became even more bloody for some time after the
Restoration, when the restrictions imposed by the Re-
publican justiciaries were removed, and during the year
1 66 1 twenty persons were condemned for witchcraft.
In 1662 occurred the famous case of the Auldearn
Witches, whose confessions are unrivalled in interest.
Dr. Taylor says that one of these beldames, named

Isabel Gowdie, who must have been crazed, gave a

232

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

most minute and quite unique account of the pro-
ceedings of the 'covin' (company) of witches to
which she belonged. She was examined at four
different times, between April 13 and May 27, 1662,
before a tribunal composed of the sheriff of the county,
the parish minister, seven country gentlemen, and two
townsmen ; and though her conceptions are almost
inconceivably absurd and monstrous, her narrative
is quite consistent throughout. She was devoted, she
said, to the service of the devil in the kirk of
Auldearn, where she renounced her Christian baptism
and was baptized by the devil in his own name with
blood which he sucked from her shoulder and sprinkled
on her head. The witch covin to which she belonged
consisted of the usual number of thirteen females, one
of whom, called the Maiden of the Covin, was always
placed close beside Satan, and was treated with
particular attention, as he had a preference for young
women, which greatly provoked the spite of the old
hags. Each of the covin had a nickname, as ' Pickle,'
' Nearest-the-wind,' ' Through-the-cornyard,' ' Able-
and-stout,' ' Over-the-dike- with-it,' &c., and each had
an attendant spirit, distinguished by some such name
as 'Red Reiver,' 'Roaring Lion,' 'Thief of Hell,' and
so forth. These imps were clothed some in saddum,
some in grass-green, some in sea-green, some in yellow,
some in black. Satan himself had several spirits to
wait on him. He is described as "a very mickle,
black, rough man." Sometimes he had boots and

2 G 233

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

sometimes shoes on his feet, but still his feet appeared
forked and cloven. A great meeting of the covin
took place quarterly, when a feast was held. The
devil took the head of the table, and all the covin
sat around. One of the witches said grace as
follows :

We eat this meat in the DeviPs

With sorrows and sichs \sighi\ and mickle shame.

We shall destroy house and hald,

Both sheep and no It intil the fauld.

Little good shall come to the fore

Of all the rest of the little store.

When the meal was ended the company looked stead-
fastly at their president and said, "We thank thee,
our Lord, for this."

The witches, it appears, sometimes took considerable
liberties with their master's character, and called him
' Black John ' and the like, and he would say, " I ken
weel eneuch what ye are saying of me," and then he
would beat and buffet them very sore. They were
beaten, too, if they were absent from meetings or
neglected any of their master's injunctions. He found,
however, the wizards much more easily intimidated
than his adherents of the other sex. " Alexander
Elder," says Isabel Gowdie, "was soft and could never
defend himself in the least, but would greet and cry
when Satan would be scourging him. But Margaret

Wilson would defend herself fiercely, and cast up her

234

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

hands to keep the strokes off her -, and Bessie Wilson
would speak crusty, and be belling again to him stoutly.
He would be beating and scourging us all up and
down with cords and other sharp scourges, like naked
ghaists j and we would still be crying c Pity, Pity -,
Mercy, Mercy -, Our Lord.' But he would have
neither pity nor mercy."

When the married witches went out to their nocturnal
conventions they left behind them in bed a besom or
three-legged stool, which would assume their simili-
tude till their return and prevent their husbands from
missing them. When they wished to ride, a corn
straw between their legs served as a horse, and on their
crying "Horse and hattock, in the devil's name ! " or
pronouncing thrice the following charm :

Horse and hattock, horse and go,
Horse and pell at, ho, ho, ho !

they were borne through the air to their destina-
tion, even as straws would fly upon a highway. If
any seeing these straws in motion did not sanctify
themselves the witches might shoot them dead. On
one such nocturnal excursion the party feasted in
Darnaway Castle, the seat of the Earl of Moray. On
another occasion they went to the Downy Hills -, a
hill opened, and all went into a well-lighted room,
where they were entertained by the Queen of the
Fairies.

The covin frequently assumed the shapes of crows,

235

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

hares, cats, and other animals, by the use of some
such charm as the following:

/ shall go infill a hare,
With sorrow, sich, and mickle care.
And I shall go in the DeviPs name,
Aye, till I come hame again.

Isabel herself had an adventure while in the shape of
a hare, she said. She was going one morning about
daybreak to Auldearn in that disguise, but had the
misfortune to meet Peter Papley of Killhill's servant
going to work, having his hounds with him. The
dogs immediately gave chase. " I," says Isabel, " ran
very long, but was forced, being weary at last, to
take to mine own house. The door being left open,
I ran in behind a chest, and the hounds followed in ;
but they went to the other side of the chest and
I was forced to run forth again, and ran into another
house, and there took leisure to say :

' Hare, hare, God send thee care.
I am in a harems likeness now,
But I shall be a woman even now.
Hare, hare, God send thee care?

And so I returned to mine own shape again." The
dogs, she added, " will sometimes get bits of us, but
will not get us killed. When we return to our own
shape, we will have the bits and rives and scarts on

our bodies."

236

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

One common mode of detecting witches was that of
running pins into their bodies, on pretence of dis-
covering the devil's mark, which was alleged to be
set on a spot insensible of pain. The persons who
acted as ' prickers ' of witches were allowed to torture
those suspected of witchcraft at their pleasure, as
if they were following a lawful and useful occupa-
tion. At length this brutal practice drew down the
reprobation of the Privy Council, and the prickers
were punished as common cheats.
Tortures of a much severer kind were often employed
to extort from the reputed witches an acknowledgment
of their guilt. Sometimes they were hung up by the
thumbs, till, nature being exhausted, they were fain to
confess whatever was laid to their charge. At other
times they were subjected to cold and hunger till their
lives became a burden. In many cases the thumbikins
and other similar instruments of torture were employed
to extort a confession.

A dreadful execution for sorcery was that of
Lady Jane Douglas, a young and very beautiful
woman. This lady, according to a writer in
Miscellanea Scotica, was the most renowned beauty
in Britain at that time. " She was of ordinary stature,
but her mien was majestic ; her eyes full, her face
oval, her complexion delicate and extremely fair ;
heaven designed that her mind should want none of
those perfections possible to a mortal creature; her
modesty was admirable, her courage above what could

237

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

be expected from her sex, her judgment solid, and her
carriage winning and affable to her inferiors." She
was accused by a disappointed lover, William Lyon,
of sorcery, and was committed to the prison in David's
Tower along with her second husband, Archibald
Campbell, her little son, Lord Glammis, and an old
priest. The unfortunate lady was first subjected to
dreadful torture on the rack ; then she was led through
the Castle gates on to the Hill, where she was chained
to a stake round which had been piled tar-barrels and
faggots, and within full view of her son and husband
was burnt to death. Amongst others who suffered the
same fate was Bessie Dunlop, in 1570, who practised
as a ' wise woman ' in the cure of some diseases, for
which she 'was worried' at the stake. Thirty years
after Isabel Young was treated in the same barbarous
fashion for the crime of u laying sickness on various
persons." In 1608 a wizard was convicted of healing
by sorcery, and suffered like the rest at the stake on
Castle Hill. "He learned frae the Devil, his master, in
Binnie Craigs and Corstorphine, where he met with
him and consulted with him divers tymes, whiles in
the likeness of a man, whiles in the likeness of an
horse." He also, it was alleged, had attempted to
destroy the crops of a farmer of the name of David
Liberton by placing a piece of enchanted flesh under
the door of his mill, and had, in addition, been guilty of
making an image in wax and thereafter melting it in the

fire, which process was a method of taking David's life.

238

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

But besides these revolting memories there are other
associations not quite so dreadful that make the old
approach to the fortress interesting. Grant tells us
that on the north side of the Hill there was an ancient
church, some remnant of which was visible in Mait-
land's time in 1753. It is supposed to have been
dedicated to St. Andrew, the patron of Scotland, and
is referred to in a deed of gift of twenty merkes yearly,
Scottish money, to the Trinity altar therein, by
Alexander Curor, Vicar of Livingstone, December 20,
1488. In June 1754, when some workmen were
levelling this portion of the Castle Hill, they discovered
a subterranean chamber, fourteen feet square, wherein
lay a crowned image of the Virgin, hewn of very
white stone, two brass altar candlesticks, some trinkets,
and a few ancient Scottish and French coins. Remains
of burnt matter and two large cannon-balls were also
found there. This edifice was supposed to have been
demolished during one of the sieges suffered by the
Castle after the invention of artillery. In December
1849, when the Castle Hill was being excavated
for a new reservoir, several finely carved stones were
found among what were understood to be the founda-
tions of this chapel or of Christ Church. The
latter building was commenced in 1637, and had
actually proceeded so far that Gordon of Rothiemay
shows it in his map with a high pointed spire.
It was abandoned, however, and its materials
used in the erection of the present church at the

239

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

Tron. This was also the site of the ancient water-
house.

On the Castle Hill lay the great and famous Blew
Stone, and it was eventually buried there. A curious
set of doggerel lines appears in Arch<eologia Scotica
on this landmark, which possibly took the form of a
great boulder.

Our old Blew Stone, that's dead and gone,

His marrow may not be $

Large, twenty feet in length he was,

His bulk none e^er did ken ;

Dour and dief, and run with grief,

When he preserved men.

Behind his back a batterie was,

Contrived with packs of woo.

Lefs now think on, since he is gone,

We're in the Castle's view.

The c packs of woo ' are the woolpacks that were
used as cover for the troops of William when besieg-
ing the Castle. On the north side of the Esplanade
is the quaint little house (the Goose Pie) of Allan
Ramsay, the famous author of the Gentle Shepherd,
who in 1725 opened a circulating library of fiction
for the benefit of the citizens of Edinburgh. The
magistrates looked on this fiction with some distrust,
fearful that it would contaminate the youth of the
city, and made an attempt to prevent Ramsay from

pursuing the business, but without success. It was

240

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

Allan Ramsay who built one of the first theatres in
Edinburgh, which stood in Carrubber's Close. A little
higher up, and facing on the Castle Hill, is the fine
block built by Professor Geddes as a students' settle-
ment. Here also the Professor himself resides, and his
house is the resort of many men of letters and art in
Edinburgh. Close by is the Outlook Tower, contain-
ing a fine collection of old Edinburgh prints, besides
a camera obscura.

There are many old houses on the Hill that bring
back memories of the days when the aristocracy of
the city lived in state within the shadow of the Castle's
battlements. In the wall of one directly facing the
Esplanade we find the cannon-ball which a fanciful
but impossible tradition says was fired from the Castle
guns during the blockade of the "45.' Close by
stood the mansion of the Dukes of Gordon } nothing
but the old lintel over the modern doorway remains,
carved with the Gordon arms. The United Free
Assembly Hall stands on the site of the residence
of Mary of Guise, and almost next door lived the
famous Dr. Alexander Webster. Hard by stood the
house of the great Duke of Argyll, for many years
rented by a tailor at £iz per annum. On the north
side the famous Laird of Cockpen had his town
residence, and near it was the mansion of the Earl of
Leven, who succeeded the Duke of Gordon as governor
of the Castle in 1689. He did no credit to his family
by his behaviour, for, according to the {Miscellanea

2 H 241

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

Scotica, "if her Majesty Queen Anne had been
rightly informed of his care of the Castle, where there
were not ten barrels of gunpowder when the Pretender
was on the coast of Scotland, and of his discourteous
behaviour to ladies — particularly how he horsewhipped
the Lady Mortonhall- -she would not have made him
a general for life."

The Butter Tron, or weigh-house, which was held by
the Highlanders during the blockade of the Castle by
Prince Charlie, stood at the bottom of the Hill, near
the Lawnmarket. It was the scene of a quarrel be-
tween Major Somerville and a Captain Crawford, which
is related in detail in The Memories of the Sometvilles.
It appears that when Major Somerville commanded
the garrison of the Covenanters in the Castle, Captain
Crawford, who was not in command of any of the
troops lying there, demanded admission to the fortress
from the sentry on duty ; whereupon the sentry in-
quired his name, that he might take it to his com-
manding officer before admitting him. At this the
Captain lost his temper and replied, "Your major is
neither a soldier nor a gentleman, and if he were
without this gate, and at a distance from his guards, I
would tell him that he was a pitiful scullion to boot."
Turning on his heel, he tramped down the Castle Hill
in a rage, but was overtaken by the Major, who had by
this time received his message. " Sir," said the Major,
" you must permit me to accompany you a little way,

and then you shall know more of my mind." The

242

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

Captain replied, "I will wait on you where you please."
When they reached the foot of the Hill the Major,
drawing his sword, said, " Now I am without the
Castle gates and at a distance from my guards, draw,
and make good your threat." Crawford evidently
thought better of it, and, taking off his hat, begged
his senior officer's pardon, whereupon Major Somer-
ville, after thrusting his sword back into its scabbard,
remarked, " You have neither the discretion of a
gentleman nor the courage of a soldier. Begone, for
a coward and fool fit only for Bedlam," and retraced
his way to the Castle. In revenge for the accusation
of cowardice, Crawford later made an attack upon
Somerville, and for this he was sentenced to imprison-
ment for a year.

243

CHAPTER XIII : From the
Castle Walls

CHAPTER XIII : From the
Castle Walls

AFTER the stories of fearsome deeds on
the Hill we will dip into the valley for final
details in the long chapter of thrilling incidents
connected with the old Castle. And thus we leave that
prehistoric ridge whose back stretches from the fortress
to Holyrood, where the ancient Britons built their
huts and so founded the future capital of the north.
Like the wine in the parable, it has burst its old
boundary, and the new town has swirled around the
rock which was destined to be the pivot of its being.
In the valley to the north of the towering mass stands
one of the remaining fragments of the old Flodden
wall, a monument of bygone days, and adjacent are
the last fragments of the Well-house Tower and
Queen Margaret's herb-garden. The old look-out,
"lurking in the double shade of rock and trees,"
guarded a pathway which wound its way under the
rock to the old church of St. Cuthbert. Not many
years ago a stairway cut in the solid rock was
discovered leading under the tower, and a skull and
many bones were unearthed from the accumulation of
soil and rubbish, along with coins of the periods of
Edward I and Edward III. Splinters of bombs were
also found, probably fired from the mortars on the
site of the Register House, and embedded in the wall

was a shot from a 48 -pounder. The tower guarded

247

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

the well that supplied the garrison with water, which
was 'drawn up to a platform, some seventy feet above,
commonly known as Wallace's Cradle.
One of the earliest gifts by the saintly King David to
his new monastery was the plot of land where rose
the spring near the King's garden on the road to
St. Cuthbert's Church, which has been converted
into a drinking fountain by the officers of the Argyll
and Sutherland Highlanders. Before the Nor' Loch
came into existence the valley was the garden that
Malcolm had cultivated for David, "while deep
pools and wide morasses, tangled wood and wild
animals, made the rude diverging pathways to the
east and westward extremely dangerous for long
afterward," though lights were burned at the Hermit-
age of St. Anthony on the Craig and the spire of
St. John of Corstorphine to guide the unfortunate
wight who was foolhardy enough to travel after
nightfall. From the valley once infested with those
wild animals the great rock, black and gaunt, towers
majestically above the watermark of still more ancient
times, "amidst the fairest city of the earth," a vast
monument of prehistoric days, "telling with scat-
tered walls and scars a rugged tale of great old

wars.'

From its battlements kings and queens and princes
have feasted their eyes on the amazing landscape
before them, where the Fife hills, like far clouds that

skirt the blue horizon, reflect the history and romance

248

SUNRISE FROM THE CASTLE WALLS

Page 248

:\ which

o

som< nty feet above,

monlv known as Cradle.

f the earliest gifts hy the saintly King David to

was the plot of land where rose
e King's garden on the road to
rch, which has been converted
ntain by the officers of the Argyll
hlanders. Before the Nor' Loci

\ alle\ w-is the garden that
|ift Mo^^aa^i^^^ deep

j:,.:,vis*r^tangled wood and wild
,\\- cro-ino- pathways to the

tr» r> r • r .

-ircniclv dangerous tor long
,vert." burned at the Hermit-
or ihc Cr.iig and the spire of
rorphme tv> tjuidc the unfortunate
'hcir^iv enough to travel after
i he \M!!CV once infested with thostt
ioat rock, black and gaunt, towers
-. he \v;i termurk of still more ancient
c raircst citv of the earth,"* a vast
ehistoric days, "telling with scat-
srurs a rugged tale of great old

eins kings and queens and princes
ir eyes on the amazing landscape
«* th^ Fife hills, like far clouds that
zon, reflect the history and romance

HIM

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

of its mediaeval days. Away to the west, as far as
the eye can reach, rises the sister castle of the royal
burgh of Stirling. Under its shade the great Bruce
cleaved the head of the English knight whilst wearing
the very golden chaplet, the basis of the Scottish
Crown, which now lies with the rest of the ancient
Regalia in the Crown Room of the royal palace.
There also Mary Stuart made the unfortunate
marriage vow to her cousin Darnley, and there after-
ward her infant James was christened from the
golden bowl sent as a gift from Queen Bess. Beyond
Stirling, Ben Lomond raises his head like a great
cone above the carselands where the Forth winds its
way to the sea amid the battlefields of the War of
Independence. The great steel girders of the Forth
Bridge connect the flat lands of the Lothians to the
kingdom of Fife, resting midway on the rock of
Inchgarvie, once held by Roy of Aldivalloch with a
company of Royalist musketeers, until turned out by
General Lambert.

Rising behind the great steel cobweb is the smoke
from the Scottish naval base built round the old
castle of Rosyth, where Margaret, with her brother,
the Atheling, her mother, sister, and the refugee
Anglican lords, stepped ashore, after finding shelter
in St. Margaret's Hope, to be received by Malcolm,
her future husband. Some five centuries later Mary
Stuart rested here on her journey through Fife.
Cromwell's mother is reputed to have been one of the

2 I 249

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

Stuarts of Rosyth, as Carlyle tells us that the genea-
logists have indubitably proved that Oliver was u the
fractional part of half a cousin " of the Royal Martyr.
Within a few miles, at Inverkeithing, Annabella
Drummond, the Queen of Robert III, received the
news of the death of her two sons, David, Duke of
Rothesay, who was foully done to death at Falkland,
and James I, the Poet King, who fell under the
assassins' daggers in the Blackfriars' monastery at
Perth. Tradition pictures her as a forsaken Queen,
sitting at her palace window gazing across the Firth
to where the Castle of Edinburgh, like the Prophet's
coffin, seems to hang mid earth and sky.
The dark woods of Donibristle, the family burial-
ground of the Earls of Moray, form a fitting back-
ground to the light stonework of the house. This
mansion, honeycombed with underground passages,
was the scene of the tragic death of the " bonnie Earl
of Moray,." Lord Huntly started from Edinburgh late
on a February evening in 1592, and, crossing at
Queensferry with his company, set fire to the house of
Donibristle. Dunbar, the tutor to the Earl of Moray,
out of devotion to the Earl, " wissing not quhither to
come but to be slaine or to be burned quicke," volun-
teered to emerge first out of the gate : " The peopell
will chairge on me, thinking me to be your lordshipe ;
sae, it being murke under nicht, ye sail come out
after me and look if that ye can fend for yourself."

Dunbar was slain immediately he appeared, and Moray

250

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

escaped by a subterranean passage leading to the
shore ; but by bad luck "the said lord's cnapscull
tippet quherone ves a silk stringe had taken fyre, vich
betrayed him to his enemies in ye darknesse of ye
nicht," and he was set upon and killed among the
rocks. The corpse was brought to c St. Giles' Kirke '
two days later with a banner, still kept at the house,
whereon was painted the naked body and its wounds,
with the device, " God avenge my cause."
The island lying a little way out from the shore is
Inchcolm, St. Colm's Inch. In 1 1 2,3 Alexander I,
caught in a storm while crossing to Inverkeithing,
gained the island with difficulty and found shelter
with its hermit, wherefore in gratitude for his deliver-
ance he founded an Augustinian priory. This priory
was afterward endowed by Mortimer, Lord of Aber-
dour, whose body the monks dropped overboard in
the channel that still bears his name. As Mr. John
Geddie puts it, " they kept his lands, but would have
none of his bones."

Aberdour is a little watering-place nestling in the
hills at which Mons Meg points her long muzzle.
It was in its castle that the Regent Morton sought
retreat after he had been driven from Edinburgh.
Farther along the coast is Burntisland, which was
captured by Cromwell along with its ships and store
of artillery; and the old castle of Rossend, once a
residence of Mary Stuart, whose bedroom still remains.

The skull of St. Margaret, adorned with jewels and

251

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

still bearing "the flowing auburn hair," was concealed
in one of its vaulted rooms before being restored to
the Castle of Edinburgh — whence it was sent to
Spain, or, as others assert, to the Jesuit College at
Douai, to disappear during the Revolution.
King Alexander III met his death on the Fifeshire
coast near Kinghorn in 1286. The story goes that
having dined merrily at the palace at Edinburgh
Castle — notwithstanding that it was Lent, according
to the old calendar — he crossed over to the 'King-
dom ' to join his young Queen, whom he had married
only the previous summer. It was a stormy night,
for it was late in the year, and being exceptionally
dark his men and he lost one another. As he rode
by the shore alone, his horse's hoofs sank in the
sand, the animal stumbled and threw him, and "he
bade farewell to his Kingdom." So ended the last of
our Celtic Kings.

Inchkeith was the island to which James IV sent
two infants, boy and girl, to be brought up under
the care of a dumb woman, as an experiment to
discover "the original language." "Some sayes,"
remarks Pitscottie cautiously, " they spake guid
Hebrew j but I know not by author's rehearse."
Mary of Guise landed her French troops at Dysart,
where they were opposed by the Lords of the Con-
gregation, whose men " laye in their claithes, their
boits never off for three weeks, skirmishing almost

every daye, yea sum dayes even from morn till

252

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

nicht" ; and a few miles distant is the famous
Wemyss, where Mary Stuart first met her young
cousin Darnley. We are told that the Queen was
light of heart, hunting, hawking, and in the evening
dancing, when Darnley, a proper young man and
tall, came riding thither out of England. The
' lang lad,' who, as Melville tells us, was " even and
brent up, weill instructed in his youth in all honest
and comely exercises," took his Sovereign's eye when
she met him in the presence chamber — now reduced
to the steward's room — opening from the old court.
There were great feastings at Wemyss, then in the
hands of Mary's half-brother, Moray ; and the Caleb
Balderstones of the lords and lairds of Fife who
entertained the royal train on their progress long
remembered their visits. The ' lang lad ' carried all
his good qualities on the outside, and the marriage
hastily arranged was repented all too soon.
Tradition says that Mary could wield a golf-club
as well as fly a hawk. Her father, James V, paid a
visit to Wemyss Castle, and so did Charles II as an
exiled prince, and away at the ' East Neuk,' as far as
the eye can see, the Duke of York found solace in
the company of his Fife lairds before fate called
him south to be the last of the Stuart Kings.
Thus the story of the Kings and Queens of Scotland
who acted their part in the history of the great Castle
of Edinburgh is reflected along the shores of the
Kingdom of Fife from the earliest times. And,

253

The Story of Edinburgh Castle

meditating upon the pageant of history which we
have endeavoured to recall, the grey towers of the
old fortress seem to plead with us to treasure its
weather-beaten and war-worn stones as a national
monument of the spirit of Scotland, which would not
" lie at the proud feet of a conqueror."